Silver & Green
by Chiyume
Summary: SEQUEL TO SCERETS OF THE NIGHT Ch.5,6,8. Neji wakes up the day after Ino's party with the hangover of a lifetime. What the hell did he do last night anyway? NejixGaara and SasuxNaru YAOI LEMON SMEX
1. What Did I Do Last Night?

**SEQUEL TO SECRETS OF THE NIGHT!**

**(Please read chapters "Operation Drunkard", "Complications of Byakugan" and "Silver and Green" before reading this for better understanding!)**

**So, this is a sequel to the SasuxNaru story "Secrets of the Night".**

**Only this time it's a NejixGaara story.**

**Of course, since this one is built up on the events in the last fic, Sasuke and Naruto must appear in this to from time to time.**

**Anyway! **

**I don't know how long this fic will get, it al depends on how many reviews I get, hehe!**

**I have no plan on what's going to happen here either, so suggestions on what you want these two lovebirds to do are always welcome!**

**Now! On with the first chapter!**

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**What Did I D****o Last Night?**

Hyuuga Neji slowly opened his eyes and immediately wished he was dead.

His head was pounding as if an entire marching band had taken up residence inside and he had the absolute most disgusting taste inside his dry mouth that he had ever experienced.

A hasty image of a rodent crawling into his mouth and dying there while he slept crossed his mind and just the thought of it made him queasy.

The sun shining in through the curtains hurt his eyes, blinding him in painful, white light, making the headache pounding on the inside of his scull worse.

He groaned and tried to pull the sheets over his head.

His body felt as if some crazy lunatic had been banging away on it with a sledge hammer. Damn, even the scalp and the bottom of his hair hurt!

He shaded his eyes with one of his hands as he slowly got up in sitting position and looked around the room he was in.

Were was he?

It turned out to be his own room.

He rubbed his aching head slowly, pulling his hand over his face.

His clothes from last night were neatly folded and stacked on top of a chair next to the bed. Did he do that?

He couldn't remember…

He glanced down. At least he still had his boxers on.

Slowly, not sure if his legs would be able to bare him, he got up from the bed, wincing when a sudden, sharp pain shot up from his rear and up through his spine.

The room started to spin and his stomach did a sudden turn.

With one hand covering his mouth he half ran, half stumbled out the door, into the bathroom across the hall and fell over the edge of the toilet seat just before his insides decided to empty themelfs.

His eyes watered when the foul, sour liquid was pressed up his throat and then splashed down into the water inside the porcelain cistern and he groped at his hair, trying to keep it out of the way.

When his stomach was finally emptied he grappled for the flushing device and pulled it, closing his eyes shut when the water began swirling in front of him.

With an exhausted sigh he sat down on the bathroom floor and leaned his head against the cool tile wall.

Man, what did he do last night?

He tried to focus his hurting head, furrowing his brows, trying to remember the events of last night's party at Ino's.

He remembered talking to Ten-Ten by the bar, discussing their latest mission… and then…

then Naruto had showed up with two hot dogs that had been spicy as _hell_.

Why had he eaten them again?

Never mind.

Somehow the blond actually managed to, embarrassing but true; _trick_ him into drinking two beers.

But just two beers couldn't give him this kind of hangover, could they? No…

Then Naruto had disappeared and Neji could have sworn that the blonde did a kage bunshin, because he was sure that he had seen two Naruto's disappear into the crowd.

And then… Kiba had showed up and given him a third beer, assuring him it wasn't that strong…

He must have lied though, because after that things started to get fuzzy…

He had drunk two more beers after that… or was it three…? And Kiba had… Kiba had asked him something… about his eyes?

His byakugan! Yes, he had asked about his byakugan and if he had ever used it for… something? Something what?

Something about Shikamaru?

What had he answered?

He couldn't remember that either…

An image of a room full of naked people flashed through his head.

What? No that had to have been his imagination.

What happened then?

Someone asked him to look for someone. Who? But he couldn't do that.  
Why? More naked people? What the..?

His head started to spin again and he leaned over the toilet ring.

How did he get home anyway?

And…

His eyes shot up.

_Hinata!_

Where was Hinata?

"Shit!"

He staggered up from the floor, ignoring the numbing pain coursing through his body and stumbled out of the bathroom.

_Oh please God, make her be home._

If Hiashi-sama found out that Neji had left her alone he would kill him! He was supposed to be watching her!

He skidded through the hallway and turned around a corner and almost crashed straight into...

"N-Neji –san!"

Hinata reached out and grabbed him, preventing him from stumbling backwards and falling to the floor.

She turned him gently so that he could lean against the wall.

"Neji-san?"

Neji leaned his head back and tried to fight down the new wave of nausea threatening to flood his senses. Was he still drunk? Oh god, how did things end up this way?

"A-are you okay?"

He opened his eyes and met the worrying gaze of his cousin. He swallowed hard.

"I'm fine."

She released her gentle grip around his arm and took a step back.

He straightened up, not willing to let his cousin see him in such a weakened state.

"How are you?" he asked, trying to keep his voice steady.

"I-I'm fine." She blushed and looked away

An awkward silence fell as the two Hyuugas both stared down into the floor.

"Erhm… So…" Neji cleared his throat. "Last night…How did you…? I mean… when…?"

"We walked home together."

"Oh…" Neji's cheeks heated up and he felt his posture slouch. Hinata walked him home? Then… was it she that had folded his clothes and placed them on the chair to?

Did she _undress_ him?

"Uhm… Was I… did I…"

_Oh, this was so __embarrassing!_

"You could walk. But you limped, and… and you were talking about someone… I-I thought you had been into a fight..." Hinata fidgeted slightly with the rim of her collar.

"You fell asleep as soon as you laid down on the bed. I-I didn't want to wake you so…"  
She blushed and fidgeted worse. Neji thought he was going to die.

"Oh…" he said again.

There was a new silence and now both of them was staring down into the floor _and_ blushing fiercely.

"Hiashi-sama…?" Neji began.

"He doesn't know." She looked up at him with a resolute expression. It faded just as fast though, as her gaze fell on the floor again.

Neji cleared his throat a second time.

"Well…I guess I should go and…grab a shower or something…"

He turned and started walking back to the bathroom.

"Ehm… N-Neji-san..?"  
"What?"

"Y-you've...eh... got something in… in your hair…"

Neji raised a hand and felt something gooey and wet stick to his fingers.

Great…Just what he needed…

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**So, what happens next?**

**Please review and give me suggestions!**


	2. Actions and Consequences

**SEQUEL TO SECRETS OF THE NIGHT!**

**(Please read chapters "Operation Drunkard", "Complications of Byakugan" and "Silver and Green" before reading this for better understanding!)**

**Please, please, please read the previous chapters, or else this one will be VERY confusing!!**

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**Actions and Consequences, Cause and Effects**

He threw up two more times before he managed to take a shower and get dressed. Breakfast was out of the question. An empty stomach couldn't empty itself, simple as that.

The dizziness in his head had started to fade away, but if that was because he started to sober up or if he was getting used to it he didn't know.

The headache didn't give up on him however.

The marching band in his head was still banging away in a maddening pace, and the soothing rubbing of his temples just didn't seem to be enough to make it go away.

Actually, if Neji had been given a choice, he would have stayed in bed all day and felt sorry for himself.

But as usual, fate had something completely different in store for him…

He was walking out from his room, thinking that maybe he should try to eat something, just to see if he would be allowed to keep it, when he heard a voice call out behind him.

"Neji. Come her for a minute."

Neji froze instantly.

Why now? Why _him_?

Hiashi walked back out on the porch without bothering to see if Neji was following and stood looking out over the garden.

Neji walked, as straight as he could and stopped behind his uncle, not sure what this was all about.

After a long time, his uncle spoke.

"How are you feeling today, Neji?"

What? Since when did Hiashi care about his health?

"I'm fine, Hiashi-sama."

Hiashi glanced back at him, but didn't say anything else.

Neji was starting to feel awfully awkward about this whole thing. What did his uncle want to talk with him about anyway?

"Hinata told me about last night."

_What!?_

_No way! Hinata didn't… _

"Really?" he felt a bit proud when he managed to keep his voice steady.

"Yes."

He turned around and looked at his nephew.

"She told me that you did a really good job caring for her."

_Huh?_

"R-really?"

"Yes. She also told me that you defended her when some guy tried to do something… inappropriate. I suspects that's why you've been limping all morning?"

Neji didn't know what to answer.

Hinata had lied for him?

"Am I right?" Hiashi inquired.

"H-hai…"

Hiashi eyed him suspiciously.

"Are you sure you're feeling well, Neji?"

"I'm probably just a bit tired… I got to bed late last night."

"I see…"

Hiashi turned around again to look over the garden.

Neji, knowing that meant the conversation was now over started walking towards the door.

"Neji."

"Hai, Hiashi-sama?"

"I'd appreciate it if you would stay clear of any more fighting in the future. It's not giving the clan a good reputation."

"Hai, Hiashi-sama…"

He stepped back inside the house and collapsed against the wall as relief washed over him.

For a moment there he had thought…

He had to remind himself to thank Hinata for covering up for him…

Suddenly he felt an urge to be outside for a while, to get out of the Hyuuga mansion and get some fresh air.

Yeah, that didn't sound too bad…

--------------------------------------------

Why was everybody looking at him like that?

It seemed like everywhere he went people were staring at him or pointing at him.

What was the matter?

He passed another group of girls, the third one in less then ten minutes, and they all stared at him and then turned around and giggled fiercely.

Why were so many girls in Konoha anyway?

A guy on the other side of the road looked at him and nudged his friends in the side and they grinned towards him.

What was going on? Did he have something stuck on his face?

He glanced down quickly to check if he had anything on his clothes, but they were as white as always.

"Oi, Hyuuga! Care to dance for us?!"

Neji's eye twitched and he froze dead in the middle of the street.

"Come on!" The guys laughed and one of them patted at the table they were sitting at.

"Jump up here and give us a little show, will ya! A little lap dance, what ya say?"

Their laughter was quickly interrupted when Neji's hand suddenly grasped around the boy's throat and lifted him up from his chair.

"Care to repeat that?" he asked deceivingly soft.

"Uh-uhrg…"

"Thought so…"

He released his grip and looked up at the others who had backed away from them.

Then suddenly he felt a hand on his shoulder.

"Hey, Neji. How's it going?"

He swirled around and came to face with Naruto. The blond was looking at the Hyuuga and then to the boy in front of them.

"I have to talk to you for a minute, Neji."

With that he dragged Neji away to the other side of the road where Sasuke was standing leaning against the wall.

The raven raised a brow when he saw who Naruto brought along with him.

"I didn't know we were getting us a chip'n'dale, Dobe."

"Shut up, Sasuke."

"A what?"

The blond turned towards Neji.

"Eh… Never mind. What was that over there all about? You looked like you were about to kill that poor guy."

Neji's appearance darkened.

"He deserved it." He muttered.

"What did he do?"

"He asked me to… dance on the table."

Naruto and Sasuke exchanged looks with each other and Neji actually saw the Uchiha hide a smirk behind his hand.

"What?" he looked at them.

"Erhm… there might be a good reason for that…" Naruto scratched his head. "Last night… well… you…"

"I what…?" Neji's eyes narrowed.

"You…eh…"

"..Danced on the living room table at Ino's." Sasuke ended.

Neji's jaw dropped.

"I WHAT!?"

"It was really appreciated." Sasuke continued. "Your fan girl club was bigger then mine there for a while actually…"

Neji suddenly remembered something.

"You!" He swirled around and glowered at Naruto. Naruto swallowed.

"This is all your fault!"

"Me? B-but I…"

"You… you and your hot dogs! If it weren't for that I would never have gotten drunk in the first place!"

"I-it wasn't my fault! It was Kiba! It was a bet!"

"You two _betted _over my sobriety!?"

"Well…yeah… but that's not the point!"

Naruto hid behind Sasuke's back when the veins at Neji's temples popped up and the Uchiha sighed.

"Okay, listen. So maybe Naruto made you drink the first drink, but he didn't force you to drink the rest, right? Unless two beers are enough to make you _that_ drunk?" he added with a smug grin at Neji.

Neji glared at him.

"So, find out who made you drink the rest, and you can solve this… misunderstanding with them."

Neji's eyes narrowed again.

"Kiba…" he growled and then he darted away over the rooftops, note; with a slight limp.

Naruto sighed.

"Thank's Sasuke…"

"Hn, whatever."

"Hey, could you at least drop that stuck up attitude when were talking to each other?"

"Have you ever tried to sound polite when your ass feels like it's on fire?"

"No."

"Then shut up."

"Hmph, I'll remember _that_ next time you come begging me for it."

"Didn't I tell you to shut up?"

---------------------------------------

Neji found Kiba sitting at the local hangout with a bottle of soda in front of him, looking just as miserable as Neji had that very morning.

Knowing the state of the other boy, only enhanced the sweet taste of vengeance when he slammed his hand at the table next to Kiba's head.

"Good morning, Inuzuka!"

Kiba groaned and rubbed his head.

"Please don't talk so loud…" he mumbled.

"Why not? Aren't we feeling well today?"

"Guess..."

"Then I guess you probably feel the same way _I_ did this morning."

Kiba raised his head and looked up and then the fact of who he was talking to started to sink in.

"Oh… you… this morning? Eh…"

"Yes. Me. This morning."

He leaned down so that he came face to face with the dog-nin.

"You don't happen to know what I did last night, Kiba? Cause for some _odd_ reason I can't seem to remember…"

"What you did? Eh… well…"

"Yeah. You know, did I do anything… unusual?"

"Eh.. .I don't… Not what I remember…" Kiba's eyes had started to flicker from side to side nervously.

"Because… when I walked here, just now, some guy asked me if I wanted to _dance_ for him. On a _table_. Isn't that weird?"

"What? Weird? Yeah…" Kiba laughed, a nervous, cracked giggle but stopped when he saw the look in Neji's eyes.

"Now, Kiba…"

Neji sat down next to Kiba.

"I'm going to ask you, just this once, and you're going to answer me. And you won't lie, because if I find out that you do, I'm going to come after you again, and then I'll be angry _for real_. Do you understand?

Kiba nodded and Neji edged closer and hissed;

"What. Did. I. Do. Last. Night?"

---------------------------------

When Kiba had finished Neji wished that there would just open up a hole beneath him and swallow him up.

Suddenly it felt as if everyone was looking at him. It had before as well, but now when he knew _why_ it all just seemed so much worse.

"So… I was blabbering about naked people?"

"Yes."

"And I got knocked unconscious?"

"Yep."

"And then Kankuro shoved a bottle of tequila down my throat?"

"Yeah…"

"And then I danced on the table?"

"No, then you started flirting with every red haired girl you laid eyes on. _Then_ you danced and stripped on the table."

Neji glared at him and Kiba cowered.

"Sorry…"

Neji sighed again.

"And then I played twister?"

"Yep."

"Anything else?"

"Not that I know of."

_Wow, that's encouraging. _

"And how many, approximately, saw this?"

"About every person in Konoha our age."

Neji whimpered.

Why couldn't fate just let him to die?

Suddenly Kiba stiffened next to him.

"Uh-oh…"

"What?"

He looked up and saw Kiba staring towards the door and turned around.

_Oh God, kill me now…_

* * *

**What's going to happen next?**

**Honestly, tell me, I have no idea….**

**You know the drill - click the purple button and review please!**


	3. Surprise!

**Well it ended up with me making up the third chapter on my own.**

**Why don't people like NejixGaara?**

**Somehow I don't get the impression that people care about this fic… sniffs**

**Now, on with the torturing of Neji! **

* * *

**Surprise!**

Suddenly Kiba stiffened next to him.

"Uh-oh…"

"What?"

He looked up and saw Kiba staring towards the door and turned around.

_Oh God, kill me now…_

"Neji-kun!"

"Neji!"

Gai quickly made his way between the tables closely followed by Rock Lee. He reached Neji and Kiba and before Neji had the time to escape, or even know what was going to happen, his vision was clouded with green spandex as his sensei embraced him in a constricting hug.

"Neji! Lee told me all about what happened last night! I'm so proud of you!"

"Mehgoophmeh!"

"Oh, there's no need to hold back anything for your sensei, Neji! Just let your spirit of youth roam free!"

"Jorshuphoaingee!"

"Manto-san…" Kiba said pointing to Neji. "He's turning blue…"

"Oh…"

He released Neji, who fell back against the table, coughing and panting desperately for air.

"Neji-kun!" Lee glomped the poor Hyuuga and gave him a new hug, although not as crushable as Gai-sensei's.

Neji shrugged him of with a glare.

"What are you two doing?" he asked gritting his teeth.

"We're congratulating you, of course." Lee said with a huge smile and Gai began sobbing again.

"Oh, Neji, I thought that you'd never let your youth's desires free, but now I regret even thinking such a thing. You're an obvious talent!"

Neji looked at them, a horrible suspicion taking form in his head.

"A natural talent in _what_ exactly?"

Gai winked away a tear and nudged him in the side.

"Aw, don't be so modest! We know what you were up to last night."

Neji grimaced.

_The__n at least that makes one of us… _

Lee looked at him with shining eyes.

"Oh, Neji-san, no wonder I chose you as my eternal rival. Showing such modesty even when loosing your virginity…" A tear twinkled in the corner of his black marble eyes. "It's so beautiful…"

Meantime Neji's heart stopped beating and the Hyuuga felt like a giant fist just hit him in the pit of him stomach.

_Loosing your virginity…_

"No…" he whispered.

"What was that, Neji?" Gai put a hand on his pupil's shoulder, but Neji shrugged it of as if it burned him.

"No! That's a lie!"

"What do you mean, Neji?"

"I-I didn't… I can't have!" He stared at the other three. This wasn't happening. It _couldn't_ be happening!

"But, Neji-san. You told me so yourself."

"I did…?"

"Yes. You walked up to me last night and said that you had… _done it_… even though you didn't exactly use that expression… It was a very colourful word, but I can't really recall which one, but it definitely…"

Neji knees felt as if they had turned into jelly and the room began spinning in front of him.

Absentmindedly he noticed that the chirp of Lee's voice became more and more distant with each word and then darkness filled his vision as the Hyuuga prodigy, promptly fainted.

--------------------

What was he supposed to do?!

He had embarrassed himself in front of half of the population in Konoha, and as if that had not been enough, he had lost his virginity! And he couldn't even remember who to!

Yes, as a matter of fact, Hyuuga Neji was a virgin… or as things were now, _used_ to be a virgin…

It just wasn't fair!

He had never even wanted to have sex! Of course there were others like a certain dog-ninja who ran after every single girl who showed even the slightest hint of skin, but Neji wasn't like that.

Sex came when you got married. Not because he was old fashion or anything, but it was simply more practical. Sex was a distraction and it would only be in the way when he did his job. Better then to recede from it and wait for when the time came to actually raise a family.

So how could it have come to this?!

He didn't even have any idea of what the girl looked like!

He sighed and rubbed his temple. The headache from this morning had started to catch up with him but right now he didn't have the energy to care.

"Why me?"

He looked up pleadingly at the sky above him, which by the way seemed _depressingly_ blue and _disgustingly_ cheerful, and whimpered.

What was he supposed to do if the girl looked him up?

What if she thought…

_No, no, no, no, no_!

He did _not_ want a girlfriend! And if he did, he would really like to be able to pick her out in a somewhat sober condition first.

He'd just have to tell her.

No girlfriend, no relationship, nothing.

But what if she cried?

And hear and marvel, ladies and gentlemen, Hyuuga Neji was NOT a pompous asshole who enjoyed breaking the hearts of others.

Instead it was very likely that if the girl started crying he might actually take it all back just so that she would stop.

This was hopeless!

He needed help. Embarrassing as it was.

He stopped his wandering through Konoha and leaned against a wall, trying to be as invisible as possible.

Let's see… who did he know that were used to deal with women?

Of course there was Kiba. But he was looking for someone who could tell him how to dump a girl, not getting dumped himself…

Then there was… eeh… well, he could always ask… uhm… maybe…eh…

He slammed his head back into the wall in frustration.

"C'mon, Neji, think! Who's the biggest heartbreaker in Konoha?"

Of course there could be only one answer to that.

Uchiha Sasuke.

Great, this kept getting better and better.

With his spirit of youth lodged somewhere deep underneath his sandals he slowly began making his way towards the Uchiha district.

--------------------

Sasuke lived in the outskirts of the Uchiha district, not far from the main street of Konoha.

It was a pretty large house for someone that lived alone, but then on the other hand, all the Uchiha houses were.

This was a creepy place. He couldn't imagine why Sasuke would like to live here all by himself. It simply had the word 'haunted' written all over it!

He walked up to the door, thinking one last time that maybe this wasn't such a good idea, but then the though of a hysterically crying fan girl passed through his mind and he knocked.

It didn't surprise him that nobody answered, it did however, surprise him that the door wasn't even closed to begin with.

When he knocked the door moved inwards a bit, revealing a piece of the hallway inside.

_That's weird.__ Sasuke doesn't look like the kind of guy who would leave his door open just like that…_

He stepped inside, very cautiously. He did not want a pissed of Sasuke to toast him into charcoal for breaking an entry.

"Hello?"

It felt a bit silly to call out like that and he immediately straightened up.

"Sasuke, I want to talk to you."

There, much better.

He walked through the hall and came to a crossing with a staircase straight ahead and an opening to his right into the kitchen and one on his left leading into the living room.

Both were empty.

Then there was a loud bump from upstairs.

"Sasuke?"

Neji walked up the stairs and reached a small corridor. Up ahead were two doors on his right side and a third leading into a bathroom on his left.

The bumping sound was heard again and Neji located it's origin from the first door to his right and were just about to reach for the handle when a very familiar, very _loud_ voice came drifting from the other side.

"Aahh…Sa-ske…"

His hand froze.

"Sasuke… faster…oh, please go faster…"

Now he could hear other sounds as well, the distinct sound of squeaking bedsprings, muffled moans and panting breaths.

_No way…__ They can't be…_

"Naruto… fuck yes…"

_Holy shit, t__hey are…But…No…those two hate each other!_

Multiple selections of what to do next scrambled through Neji's head.

He could leave discretely, pretend that he didn't hear anything and then never be able to look at neither Naruto, nor Sasuke again, due to the images which would then form inside his head.

He could knock on the door, wait until they open and discover that they were actually doing something completely different then what he was thinking they were doing.

He could open the door and se the two of them… enjoying themselves… with each other…

He really, really, _really_ wanted to go and hope for option 2, but a better half of him told him that it was pretty much useless.

So he was left with option 1 and 3, and he was convinced that whatever images this situation had caused to run through his mind, he would be able to erase and forget about them if he just tried hard enough.

So he went for option 1 and quietly began sneaking back towards the stair.

Everything would have gone just fine… if the wind outside hadn't chosen that very moment to flex it's muscles and blow the front door shut with a deafening bang.

The sounds from inside Sasuke's bedroom ended abruptly and Neji froze dead in the middle of a step.

"What was that?" he heard Sasuke ask.

"What was what?" Naruto asked back.

"That sound. It sounded like the front door."

"I didn't hear anything." The blonde sounded as if he was pouting.

"Wait a second…"

There were rustles of sheets from inside the room and before Neji had the time to figure out were, or how to hide, the door swung open and he was faced with what he assumed to be a naked Sasuke with a sheet wrapped around his waist.

_Fuck_

The Uchiha stared at him with his mouth hanging open in something that, in any normal case, would have been an extremely comical sight. But right now Neji couldn't care less.

"Sasuke? What's the matter, why did you-"

Naruto walked up behind Sasuke and Neji noticed that the blonde had not covered himself up and turned his eyes to the floor.

The blond ninja stared at him and then began blushing madly, making a perfect imitation of a ripe strawberry.

After what seemed to be an eternity Sasuke grabbed a hold of himself and cleared his throat.

"What do you want, Hyuuga?"

His voice seemed to awaken Naruto who ran back into the room and out of sight. Sasuke walked out of the room and closed the door behind him, turning his black gaze to Neji.

Neji coughed and felt his cheeks get warmer underneath the interrogating look.

"I… I need to talk to you. It's important."

Sasuke raised a brow sarcastically.

"What could a high and mighty Hyuuga like you ever need my help for?"

Neji growled.

"Sasuke, I just had the worst day of my life, so please, don't make it worse by mocking me."

The other raven sighed.

"Whatever." He glanced back at the closed door behind him and then turned back to Neji.

"Would you mind waiting downstairs for a while?"

Neji blushed even harder but turned around and almost ran down the stairs.

Sasuke smirked and walked back into the bedroom where Naruto was sitting on the bed, carefully covering himself up with a pillow.

"What did he want?" he asked, looking over Sasuke's shoulder to see if Neji was still there. Sasuke shrugged.

"I don't know."

"But what did he say?"

"He wanted to talk to me about something. I told him to wait downstairs."

"For what?" Naruto's eyes narrowed at him suspiciously.

Sasuke closed the door and then climbed up onto the bed, lowering himself over the blond.

"Well, as I recall it we were doing something very pleasant before we got interrupted…"

Neji waited downstairs like Sasuke told him to. He spent his time in the kitchen, flushing water down the sink. Whatever those two were doing up there, he had heard enough for one day.

It didn't take long until they came back down. Sasuke was as spotless as ever, but Naruto looked as if he had just walked straight through a hurricane, his hair pointing in every possible (and impossible) direction.

Sasuke sat down by the kitchen table and Naruto threw himself on a second chair, looking at the other boy with ha grin. Sasuke ignored him.

"So, what did you want to talk with me about?"

"Well…"

Neji looked at Naruto who met his eyes with a face that practically screamed challenge at him. Sasuke saw it.

"Whatever you want to say to me, you can say to Naruto as well."

Neji swallowed but then decided to hell with it.

"Whatever, half of Konoha probably knows by now anyway…"

He leaned towards the kitchen counter and took a deep breath.

"Yesterday, at the party, I got together with someone."

Sasuke and Naruto looked at each other but stayed quiet. Neji took it as a good thing and continued.

"I don't think I have to point out to the two of you that I was drunk. _Very_ drunk. And apparently… Things happened between this girl and me."

"Happened?" Sasuke smirked. Neji shot him a glare.

"Yes." He said slowly. "_Happened_."

Sasuke leaned back and threw his arms behind his head.

"So… what's the problem?"

"Yeah. What's the problem?" Naruto grinned wider. "You didn't perform or what?"

Neji opened his mouth to reply but shut it again. Naruto's eyes widened.

"What?! Don't tell me that's what actually happened!"

"Of course it didn't! I mean… I don't think so…"

"Don't think so?" Sasuke hinged a brow at him.

"Yeah… I… The thing is… I can't remember anything about it."

There was an awkward silence and then Naruto let out a snorting laughter.

"So you're saying… that you don't remember _anything_? As in nothing? Not even who she was?"

Neji glared at him.

"Oh my God, that's the funniest thing I ever heard!"

"Shut up, Dobe."

Naruto stopped laughing and looked at Sasuke, who in his turn had his eyes locked on Neji.

"Neji. Just one question, and don't go all stuck up and proud on me… Was it your first?" He glared at Naruto, warning him from uttering a single sound.

Neji almost snarled that Sasuke shouldn't be the one to talking about being stuck up and proud, but decided not to and nodded.

"Then… What are you going to do?"

"That's what I wanted your help with!"

"In what way?" Sasuke pretended to be completely oblivious to what Neji was talking about, which made the long haired boy almost whimper with frustration.

"Well… what would you have done? Should I look for her or wait until she comes to me? If she comes to me, should I tell her the truth or just lie about it? What if she thinks that it was something serious? What if she thinks I wanna be her boyfriend or something?"

Sasuke shrugged.

"Tell her what you want. It's your decision."

"But…"

"Neji." Sasuke's voice grew harsh. "I can't tell you what to do. As a matter of fact I refuse to. This is your call. What you chose in the end is your problem, not mine."

"Yeah! Maybe she's really hot or something?" Naruto suggested.

Neji sighed.

"Whatever… But could you at least try and help me find out who it was? I mean, you must have seen me last night." Naruto shook his head.

"Actually… the last thing we saw of you was at the twister game. After that we… went elsewhere." He glanced at Sasuke who smirked back at him. Neji sighed.

"I don't think I want to know… Oh, get a grip!" he snarled when Naruto gave Sasuke a blow kiss. Sasuke rolled his eyes at the blond and then turned back to Neji.

"Hey, don't worry. If she cares she'll come to you. If she doesn't… then you've got nothing to worry about, right?"

"Right…I guess."

--------------------

It was a very confused and somewhat shocked Hyuuga Neji who left the Uchiha district.

_Sasuke and Naruto_?

He just couldn't get a hold of the concept, but somehow it didn't exactly… seem wrong.

He had always known that maybe Naruto was a bit over-everything to be completely straight, but he had always been talking about that Sakura-girl, so Neji had never tagged him to be gay.

Then maybe he was bi? Or maybe Sakura was just a cover?

He sure seemed gay enough.

And… let's just face it, Sasuke had always been like a girl with PMS.

Wonder how long they had been seeing each other?

Not that he cared or anything, it might just be a good thing to know.

But right now he didn't have the energy to bother finding out.

He was dead tired and his original plan to spend the day in bed, had been crushed mercilessly from the moment he stepped outside his front door.

The only thing that existed in his head right now was the thought of himself, in his bed; sleeping, and he did not plan on moving as much as an inch until morning.

It had already started to darken and the sky had grown a faint crimson colour, the trees of the forest around Konoha silhouetting themselves like black giants against the setting sun.

The streets had grown vacant and the few people that were still outside were heading home, walking through the town with their mind focused on the road before them.

Neji though didn't really pay attention to were he was going, thinking about the strange day that had past he just wandered around, glad to finally be able to think in peace without any unpleasant surprises pouncing down on him.

As the air grew cooler and a faint night breeze began to gently course by him he suddenly felt an unmistakable cold shill run down his back.

Someone was watching him.

He stopped and looked back, but there was no one there.

Scowling, he turned his gaze forward and began walking again.

After just a couple of steps he spun around, doing a set of well known hand seals.

"Byakugan!"

He scanned the area, but saw nothing. Not as much as a mouse.

Feeling a bit stupid he relaxed, deactivating his eyes.

_My mind must be playing tricks on me…_ he thought. And why not, this had been a very weird day, and he supposed going through it with a hangover hadn't really improved his intake of it.

Then the sound of footsteps came drifting towards him from a dark alley in front of him.

He stiffened and took a fighting stance.

The sound grew louder, the person moving closer.

Neji couldn't put his finger on it, but the sound of those footsteps made the hair in the back of his neck stand on end. They were just… to _slow_. Not the sound of someone hurrying to get home before nightfall, or just being out for a stroll.

They were… stalking.

He didn't like this.

Suddenly the footsteps stopped and then a pair of jade green eyes became visible in the darkness.

Neji straightened, but he didn't let his guard down just jet. He had seen what kind of damage Sabaku no Gaara was capable of during the chuunin exam and he did not want to end up like a wet pool of blood on the sidewalk.

The sand ninja looked at him, an unreadable expression in his eyes.

What was that look supposed to mean? He glared at the redhead.

"What are you looking at?" he asked harshly. People staring at him really started to get on his nerves.

Gaara didn't answer. He just kept looking, holding Neji's silvery eyes with his own. Neji growled.

"Hey. I asked you a question, it is considered polite to answer."  
Gaara turned and started walking away, glancing back with an uncaring snort.

"Hn. Whatever."

Neji stared as the red head disappeared amongst the shadows. Suddenly the streets seemed to desolate and the wind that used to be soothingly cool were now sending shivers through his body.

It took him less then five minutes to get back home.

**

* * *

****Hehe, I looove to make Neji loose his ground. **

**Almost as much as I like torturing Sasuke, haha!**

**Anyway, write and tell me what you think!**

**Ja Ne!**

* * *


	4. No Way in Hell!

**No Way in Hell!**

Hyuuga Neji was going crazy.

And I don't mean a "dude-are-you-crazy?"-crazy, but as in "ready-to-rip-someone's-friggin-head-off"-crazy.

Everyone was looking at him!

Every time he turned, someone would be staring him straight in the eyes!

Wherever he went someone would always laugh or giggle just as he passed them!

He knew that he shouldn't just assume that they were laughing at him, but there was this little, tiny, tiny_, screaming_ voice in the back of his head that kept insisting that they were.

And it didn't stop there, oh no.

This annoying voice also kept asking him loud questions every single time he passed by a girl!

_What if it was her? Oh shit, she looked at me! Maybe it was her? Or __her? Or maybe that girl over there?!_

Eventually he couldn't even bring himself to look anywhere else then down into the ground as he walked the streets.

He would never admit it, but the fact was that he was just about to reach his limits.

He had gotten himself pissed drunk when he really was supposed to watch over his cousin, humiliated himself beyond the brink of dignity and to top it all of; had managed to loose his virginity to a complete stranger, all at the same night.

His friends had tried to cheer him up by telling him about all the stupid things they had done at times when they were drunk, but that had only caused him to feel even more miserable, since their stories wasn't even half as bad as his was.

The though of staying indoors and never coming out again had been really tempting… But it would also be a very childish way to solve the problem, and Neji would rather die then to rely on such a thing.

He tried to convince himself that in a couple of weeks the entire thing would be forgotten and then he could go back to his old life, where his only real problems consisted in trying to make Lee shut up from time to time.

But for now, he was going crazy.

-------------

Today he had a mission.

Of his own, personal matter.

He had woken up and sat up straight in his bed and realized that this just wouldn't work.

He could not spend the rest of his life studying the pavements of Konoha.

If he didn't find out who the girl was, he would snap!

So he got up, got dressed and headed out to find someone who could tell him anything about who he had been with at that party.

Sasuke and Naruto had already told him that they hadn't seen him since the twister game, and Lee had said that Neji's…. erhm… _confession_, had taken place after it.

So the question was, what had he been doing between those times?

-------------

His first stop was Ino's house. He knew that Ino had been at least somewhat sober that night since she was the host, so if she had seen him with someone she would definitely remember it.

Of course he didn't go and ask her if she, by any chance, knew who he accidentally had screwed over. Instead he phrased the question as innocently as possible, but he still couldn't help but to get a bit nervous when Ino gave him a weird look.

She scowled and looked as if she was thinking really hard and Neji anxiously waited for her reply.

His hopes were however, quickly shattered when Ino shook her head.

"I'm sorry Neji. I hardly saw you at all."

"I see… Well, I'll go and ask someone else then."

Tenten had been with him when Naruto had feed him the hotdogs, maybe she knew if he had spoken to someone special?

-------------

Tenten just shrugged.

"No, I left almost immediately after that. You walked of with Kiba and Hinata disappeared somewhere with Sakura. There wasn't much left for me, so I went home."

Neji felt a slight sting when he was reminded about how he had just left Hinata alone, but he shook it of. He would take care of that later.

"So I left with Kiba?"

"Yeah. You were with him most of the night I think."

-------------

He looked up Kiba who were at the training site with Akamaru, doing some weird exercise that apparently involved Akamaru peeing on everything.

"Well… You already know what happened with Kankuro and all…" Kiba looked as if he really didn't want to remind Neji about all that, but luckily for him, Neji had pushed his urge to strangle the other boy aside for a moment. That still didn't keep him from getting extremely annoyed by the other's avoiding answer.

"Yes, I do. But I want to know what happened after that." He suddenly realized something and narrowed his eyes at the dog ninja.

"Where did _you_ go, by the way?"

"Me?... Erh.. I went… I was about to… And then….and…."

"You left me with those two didn't you?"

Kiba jerked and look up at the taller boy.

"Well… I…"

Neji sighed.

"Never mind… Was there, by a chance, _any_ part of your girl-obsessed brain that registered anything else about me that night?"

Kiba hinged a brow at him, suddenly with a smirk on his lips.

"You really shouldn't insult me like that, you know. You're the one who got it lucky."

"Well, maybe I would have called it that as well, if I could _remember _anything."

Neji glared at him and Kiba's smirk died.

"All right, I get the point. The last thing I saw of you was after the twister game. You were at the bar, gulping down shots."

_He had don__e shots? Wonderful…_

"Was there anyone else around? Someone who could have seen where I went after that?"

This was ridiculous! He was on a bloody goose chase after himself!

"Hmm… I think I saw Chuoji by the snack table, but I'm not sure. It could have been a plant of some sort to."

"A plant?"

Kiba glared at him.

"You weren't the only one with a hangover you know."

-------------

Chouji and Shikamaru were found at the barbeque restaurant.

The large boy was stuffing himself as usual and Shikamaru seemed content with just watching him eat.

Neither of them had seen Neji at the party.

"I was in the kitchen almost the entire time preparing some of my amazing dips! And Shikamaru was… Shikamaru was…"

Chouji looked at the browned hair boy sitting across the table and scowled.

"By the way, where _were_ you, Shikamaru?"

"Huh?"

Shikamaru seemed to snap out of his thoughts and looked up at them.

"Where were you at the party? You disappeared."

"I had to do something so I left early."

"Oh? What did you do?"

"Nothing special. Your bacon's burning."

"Oh!"

Chouji grabbed his chopsticks and went to save the flaming remains of his dinner. Neji looked at Shikamaru and saw the other boy looking out the window and he could have sworn that he saw a blush on Shikamaru's cheeks before the ninja suddenly got up from his seat."

"I just remembered that I have some more things to do. See you later, Chouji."

And then he walked out of the restaurant.

"I wonder what he really did at that party. He's been acting strange ever since."

Chouji turned to Neji.

"I'm sorry, but I can't help you. Is there anyone else you haven't asked yet?"

Neji thought about it for a second.

"Maybe…" he said and followed Shikamaru's example and left, leaving Chouji to eat in peace.

-------------

He was on his way back to the Hyuuga compound to look for Hinata when suddenly he felt that cold chill on his back again.

He glanced to his left and saw Gaara standing on the other side of the street, looking at him.

Neji stopped and looked straight back and then Gaara just turned and left.

What was the matter with that guy?

He began walking again but couldn't help but to glance behind his shoulder every now and then, still not being able to shake the feeling of being watched.

When he finally reached home, Hinata wasn't there.

_Just my luck_

He didn't really feel like sitting around, waiting for her so he walked out again.

As he passed through the mansion gate he saw a shadow flicker in the corner of his eye and turned his head that way only to find the same red head standing there looking at him, _again_!

He stopped for the second time and scowled at him.

"Can I help you?" he asked.

Gaara just kept looking at him and slowly tilted his head a bit to the side.

There was something about the way he looked at him that made Neji very nervous. He suddenly felt naked, as if the sand ninja was using some sort of perverted byakugan to see through his clothes.

"I said: can I help you?" he repeated, a bit louder.

Gaara looked up.

"No." he said and turned around, walking away.

_Okay, tha__t's starting to creep me out_.

He waited until the boy had disappeared around a corner and then he hurried back to the main street.

Maybe he should go to the training site? He could train his byakugan while waiting for Hinata to get back from whatever she was doing.

What was she doing anyway? She wasn't supposed to be anywhere special today, was she?

Never mind, he didn't have time to think about that right now.

He reached the training site and was a bit surprised to find it completely abandoned. Kiba and Akamaru were gone, but the rank smell of dog urine was still hanging heavy in the air.

He decided to head further, into the forest instead. There would be more animals and such to target in there anyway.

He walked in between the large trees surrounding the training ground. The shadows were thicker in here, but Neji didn't see that as a bad thing. Decreasing his normal eye vision would only increase the quality of his byakugan as he trained.

He continued, happy with just walking around without having people looking at or whispering about him.

When the training grounds were far behind him, he reached a glade, _his_ glade.

The ground in its centre was free from grass, the result from many lone training sessions of his Hakkesho Kaiten.

He stepped into the middle of the glade and closed his eyes and then stood completely still.

The woods around him were absolutely quiet. His mind entered a Zen-like state, his pulse went down to below resting pace and his breathing became slow, calm and controlled.

Minutes passed, the Hyyuga didn't move. He stood immobile like a statue, frozen at the spot as his ears listened for any signs of movement.

Everything was quiet, and Neji waited.

Then, focusing his mind, he did a single handseal, unleashing the chakra that was being directed towards his eyes, the chakra channels at his temples bulging out as his eyelids shot open.

The world around went blurry, the solid, dark trees faded into shadows around him as the chakra filled up his vision, bathing everything in a cold, blue light.

He began with his ordinary routine, scanning the area around him for potential targets.

There were a rabbit curled up underneath a bush nearby.

One, two, three, four, five birds in the oak straight ahead of him.

A deer was gracing a hundred yards behind him to the left.

His vision travelled further, reaching back the road he just came from, over the still deserted training ground, back through the main street, devouring the distance with an incredible speed.

He was already able to go almost all the way back to the Hyuuga compound without having to strain himself. Distantly he remembered the early start of his training when he had almost passed out just by going passed the training grounds.

Retracting his byakugan he began focusing on his surroundings once again.

The byakugan had a 360 degrees vision span, except for that annoying blind spot in the back of his neck.

The rabbit was still there and the five birds had decreased to three, and the deer…

The animal suddenly raised it's head and clipped with the ears and then darted away in between the trees.

Neji scowled. He slowly began scanning the area again. Suddenly the tranquillity around him seemed very unnatural. It was too quiet. The birds didn't sing anymore and the suns golden rays didn't seem to warm his skin as much as it had done a couple of seconds ago.

He turned his head just an inch to the side and then his hand flashed to his side as he spun around and three kunais were sent flying through the air.

There was a hoarse, whispering sound and then came three loud thuds as the projectiles hit their target.

Neji spread his legs apart and crouched, getting ready to fight as he glared at the person in front of him.

_Damn it, he was in my blind spot the entire time._

There was another whispering sound followed by three new thuds as the kunais hit the ground when Gaara's ultimate defence returned back into the gourd.

Gaara's green eyes were looking straight into Neji's raging white ones and for some reason the fact that he seemed so _calm,_ really pissed Neji off!

"What do you want?" he snarled and straightened up. It was quite obvious that the red head wasn't there to attack him, if so; he would have done that already.

Gaara looked back at him and for a second it seemed as if he was about to say something, but then he suddenly turned around and began walking away.

_Oh__ no, you don't!_

Neji threw himself against the other boy and rammed him up against the nearest tree.

Gaara's gourd immediately dissolved itself and cushioned the impact, preventing him from getting hurt. Neji's hand clutched around the other boy's throat, pushing him back against the trunk while his shoulders shook with anger and frustration.

He had had enough of this! He was tired of people looking at him as if he was some kind of freak show!

Three times. Three times today this bastard had followed him, stared at him and then just walked away without as much as a word! Just who the hell did he think he was?

His anger only grew when he saw that the sand ninja was still looking at him in the same disgustingly, unemotional way as before and his fist unconsciously tightened and he growled.

"What do you want from me?!"

Then out of nowhere the sand came rushing up and circled around Neji's arm and bent his fingers open and the second later he got thrown up into the air and tossed back down onto the ground.

He got up and barely had time to regain his balance when the sand shot back up and wrapped itself around his arms and legs and then the air was knocked out of his lungs when he got slammed up against another tree trunk.

He tried to get loose but the sand kept him in place. He realised that his byakugan was useless in this situation. There were no points to hit, no chakra to stop.

Gaara straightened up and wiped his mouth of with the back of his arm. He looked on as the raven struggled against his bonds and then walked up to him, standing so close that their chests almost brushed against each others.

Neji stilled his movements and growled again.

"What the fuck do you want?"

Gaara raised a hand and slowly let his fingers comb through Neji's silky hair. Neji tossed his head to the side, breaking the contact and for the first time he saw Gaara's unemotional mask dissolve, earning a slight scowl from the other boy.

The red head looked at him.

"Calm down. I'm not here to hurt you."

"As if you would be able to." Neji snorted back, even though he was painfully aware of the fact that he was the one pinned back against a tree at the moment. If Gaara decided to go back on his word, Neji wouldn't be able to shield himself.

Gaara didn't seem to mind the rude comeback and just raised his hand again to brush it against Neji's cheek.

Again Neji threw his head away and even did an attempt to bite after the hand stretching out to him.

Gaara suddenly smirked.

"Putting up a fight are we?"

"You think I'm just going to let you win?"

Gaara leaned in closer.

"You did the last time." He said.

_Last time? What the hell __was he talking about?_

Further then that he didn't have time to think because then Gaara grabbed hold of his hair at the back of his head and Neji felt the other boy's lips crash onto his.

He gasped out of surprise and shock and then he felt the tip of Gaara's tongue dart in between his lips. He tried to shake his head to break the kiss, but Gaara's grip around his hair tightened, toughing at it hard, making him wince.

When Neji felt as if all the air in his lungs were about to get sucked out, Gaara finally pulled away, allowing him to breath.

He gasped for air and then opened his mouth to shout out a "what the fuck do you think you're doing?!" when the words got caught in his throat.

Gaara's face were so close to his that their noses almost brushed against each other and Neji found himself staring into Gaara's black rimmed, sea green orbs.

A sudden image flashed inside his head. Gaara's face in front of him, loud music playing in the background.

_Those eyes…_

The taste of Gaara's skin on his lips.

_He had seen those eyes before…_

"What's the matter, _Hyuuga_? Are you giving up so soon already?"

"_Do you still want to know my name, Hyuuga_?"

No.

"I though you were a fighter. Maybe I didn't excite you enough?"

Gaara's body pushed closer and Neji felt a leg press in and up between his.

No.

Neji strangled a moan when the leg began moving. Gaara's lips descended onto the skin at his neck, his tongue leaving a trail up to his jaw line, breathing hot air into his ear.

"You've been acting so cold, Hyuuga."

_No…_

"If I didn't know better I'd think that you were trying to avoid me."

Gaara's hand silently slipped under his shirt, five cool fingers slowly trailing up against his chest as his leg kept making circles against his groin and it took all of Neji's willpower not to moan out from the touch. The sand loosened its grip as Gaara's focus was directed towards the quickly reddening spot on Neji's neck.

"That's it, keep fighting. It just gets better that way."

_No way in hell!_

"No!"

Neji thrusted his body forward and didn't even notice the pain when Gaara's head knocked against his jaw at the sudden movement.

"You stay the fuck away from me!"

Neji pushed himself away from the other, stumbling backwards trying to keep himself up while millions of confused thoughts ran through his mind.

_There was no way… _

With his heart racing in his chest, Neji turned around, and for maybe the first time in his life, he ran away.

* * *

**To be Continued  
**


	5. A Little Piece of Advice

**A ****Little Piece of Advice**

"Hey, watch it!"

"Take it easy, dude!"

"Look out!"

The shouts echoed along the main street as he ran through the crowd.

_There was just no way._

A woman with a grocery bag jumped out of his way with a startled cry when he pushed past her, but he didn't care.

_He couldn't have. Not with _him!

His heart was beating in his chest, his pulse banging in his ears as if a mad drummer had settled down inside his auditory canal.

Gaara's face kept popping up before his inner vision, those green eyes and the hungry sparkle in them.

_You've been acting so cold, Hyuuga._

_No, no, no, no, no!_

He skidded around a corner and then his breath was knocked out of him and he fell backwards down onto the ground with a groan.

"Watch where you're going, will you? Eh…? Hyuuga?"

Neji looked up and met a dark gaze from a pair of onyx eyes.

"Sasuke?"

-----------------

"Pouncing him did not work."

Naruto almost fell of the chair at the ramen-hut, spilling a mouthful of ramen over his jumpsuit.

"Gaara! Don't sneak up on me like that! You scared the shit out of me!"

Gaara gave him a look that told him that he obviously didn't care. Naruto sighed and spun around on the high stool to face the scowling red head.

Gaara had his arms folded across his chest and he didn't look as if he was a bit pleased with the blonde at the moment.

Naruto sighed.

"Of course it didn't work the _first_ time. You have to do it more times before he starts to get a hang of it."

Gaara raised a brow. Naruto sighed again.

"Okay, here it is. You like Neji."  
"I have an interest in him."  
"All right, an _interest_ in Neji. He obviously has one for you too, since he flirted with you at the party."

"He didn't look interested."

Naruto grinned and rubbed the back of his head.

"Well, there might be an explanation for that…"

Gaara's scowl grew deeper and his eyes literally drilled themselves into Naruto's blue ones.

"Yes?"

"Neji came to Sasuke the other day, and… he told us that he… He didn't have any memories about what happened at the party. He thought it was a girl that he had been flirting with. And… he didn't remember about that… other thing either."

Gaara's hand flashed out and grabbed Naruto's orange jumpsuit and pulled him of the chair.

"You _knew_ this?" he hissed and pulled his collar higher until Naruto had to stand on the tip of his toes to remain balance.

"Calm down, everything is under control."  
"He doesn't _remember_."

"I know that. It's part of the plan!"

Gaara's eyes narrowed.

"What plan?"

"Eeh… I'll tell you if you put me down…"

Slowly Gaara released his grip of the orange clothing and Naruto was once again standing with both of his feet steadily planted on the ground.

Naruto raised his hands up in a defensive wave.

"Okay, so it's like this; Neji's obviously gay as a picnic-basket. We know that, right?"

"Right…"

"So…!" Naruto raised his index finger and waved it matter- of- factly in front of the sand-nin. "All we have to do is to make him realise that. So we need you to… erhm, _pounce him_ more times so that he'll start thinking about it more."

Gaara's stare remained for a while longer, but then he seemed to accept what the blonde was telling him.

"And this will make him come to me?"

"Exactly!"

The kitsune-vessel gave him a grin and nudged him in the side and without being bothered by the suddenly tensed expression on Gaara's face he leaned in and whispered into his ear.

"Now, this is what you have to do…"

-----------------

"What happened to you?"  
Neji stared up at the Uchiha above him and just couldn't find any words to answer. Sasuke looked down on him with a mix of indifference and curiosity.

"You look like someone just scared the hell out of you."

"I-I… I…"

He sputtered the letter out but couldn't get any further. The words lodged themselves in his throat like rocks damming up a river and instead he just shook his head frantically from side to side.

"Neji?"

_What the hell happened to him? He looks as if he's seen a ghost or something…_

He reached down and grabbed the Hyuuga by the shoulders and roughly pulled him to his feat and pushed him against the wall.

"Hey! What happened?"

"I…I… He…"

Neji's face was ash pale with eyes widened and he kept staring straight ahead of himself. Sasuke wasn't even sure if the Hyuuga actually saw him or not.

He had to do something about this. The terrified expression on Neji's face wasn't exactly one of the most pleasant things he had seen in his life.

Without anything better to think of, he released Neji's shoulder with his right hand, drew it back and then he punched the other boy in the face so hard it hit the wall and bounced back again.

"AH!

"_Hyuuga_!"

"_What_?!"

Neji's eyes flashed at him and his hand went up to rub at the swelling at the back of is head.

Sasuke pushed him harder against the wall.

"Snap out of it! What the fuck's the matter with you?"

Neji's glare faded and he angrily shoved Sasuke away.

For a second Sasuke thought the Hyuuga was going to leave, but instead the other boy just stood there.

"What's going on? You came running around the corner like you had an entire ANBU-squad chasing you."

"I…"

Neji looked down and then he seemed to think of something.

"Hey, Sasuke…"  
"What?"

"You… you and Naruto… You…sleep with each other, right?"

Sasuke hinged a brow at him.

"As I recall it, you were the one who walked in on us just a couple of days ago."

The faintest of blushes coloured Neji's cheek, but then he regained his composure.

"Well… Is there a way to… to know if you've slept with a guy?"

A suspicion started to take form in Sasuke's head, but he acted like nothing.

"That depends. If you're topping I don't think there's any way to tell."  
"And if you don't top?"

Sasuke smiled faintly.

"If you don't top and it's your first time, you'll definitely know if you've slept with a guy or not. Why the sudden curiosity?"

Neji looked up at him and then he let his eyes flicker around the alley they were in before he turned towards Sasuke again.

"If you tell anyone about this, I'll kill you, do you understand?"

It only took one look from those pale eyes for Sasuke to understand that this was serious, so he nodded and Neji began to tell him about what had happened.

When he was finished Sasuke's mouth was hanging open and he was staring at the Hyuuga as if he would turn into a fire breathing dragon at any second. Neji looked at him.

"Please don't do that."

Sasuke shut his mouth with an audible click from his teeth.

Neji sighed and leaned against the wall and dragged his hands over his face.

"Damn it, Sasuke, what am I supposed to do?"

To Sasuke, the entire situation was completely irrational.

Neji had just shown up out of nowhere and told him that he might just, accidentally had sex with a homicidal maniac and that said maniac then had stalked and molested him and made the Hyuuga completely loose his composure and on top of it all, he was now standing in front of him, Uchiha Sasuke and asking him for his _help_?

He decided to tune in on the fact that he could wake up any minute. Until then this weird dream could keep rolling, just for fun.

He leaned against the wall next to Neji and looked up at the sky.

"Well… Are you sure that you actually had sex with him? It's not just some bad joke someone is pulling on you?"

Neji smiled gloomily.

"And who would be able to make Sabaku no Gaara participate in a joke like that, you think?"

"True."

There was a new silence and without even realising it, Sasuke's brain began working out different kinds of answers and theories to Neji's predicament. After a while he sighed and looked down onto the ground.

"Okay, so here it is…"

Neji glanced at him.

"From the way he acted towards you earlier, I'd say that you obviously were the uke in the situation. Which in turn, also suggests that you were so during the party as well."

He waited for some kind of protests from the other boy, but when it didn't come he continued.

"So, there is a very easy way to find out if you actually slept with him or not."  
"And what's that?"

Sasuke glanced at him and met a very suspicious, silvery gaze.

"When you woke up the morning after the party, did it feel as if someone had just shoved a heated poker up your ass?"

Neji stared at him and then his face turned completely white.

"Oh my God…"

"Neji? Hey, Neji? Wait, hold on, hey!"

Sasuke reached out and grabbed the teen by the shirt and pushed him back up against the wall the moment before Neji fainted and toppled over.

"Neji! Oh for fuck's sake…"

"OW!"

"Stop spacing out all the time, it's hard trying to have a conversation with you as it is!"

Neji rubbed his chin were Sasuke's knuckle had hit him for the second time that day and glared daggers at the Uchiha.

Sasuke glared right back and after having a long counsel with himself, Neji gave up.

He needed Sasuke's help after all.

"So what do I do?"

Sasuke took the question as a white flag and shrugged.

"What do you want?"

"I want him to leave me alone of course!"

"Then tell him of."

"Are you crazy?! Asking Lee to kill me would be more merciful."

"I don't know, maybe he really likes you." He smirked. "Maybe he'll do you quickly."

"Bite it, Uchiha."

Sasuke sniggered and turned around to walk away.

"Hey, where are you going?"

"To where I was going when I first ran into your sorry ass; home."

"And what about me?"

Sasuke stopped and glanced back at him.

"What about you?"

"_What about…_? You can't just walk away from me when I've told you everything!"

Sasuke sighed.

"Fine, what do you want?"

"What should I do?!"

Sasuke thought about it for a moment and then he smirked at Neji.

"If he tries to rape you again, just… do something unexpected. Make him loose his ground. Then run for it."

Neji's eye twitched.

"_Run_ for it?"

"Do you _want_ to get raped?"

"Of course not!"

"Then run."

------**Four hours Later**-----------

Naruto was sitting in his couch, eating a cup of shrimp ramen when he heard the front door open and close out in the hallway.

"I'm back."

Sasuke walked in and threw himself down next to the blonde and sighed loudly.

"What's the matter? Fan girls been chasing your sexy ass again?"

"No. Not today. I wish they had though…"

Naruto almost choked on his noodles and turned to look at his boyfriend.

"You _wish_? What the hell happened to you?"

Sasuke tiredly pulled a hand through his black hair and sighed again.

"I ran into Neji on the way home."

"So? Neji's not that bad."

"It wasn't Neji like that. It was more of a… problem he had."

Naruto stopped eating and slowly put the chopsticks and the ramen cup down on the coffee table in front of him.

"What problem?"

Sasuke opened his mouth but shut it again.

He wasn't afraid of Neji, but… right now Neji was probably as unstable as a barrel filled with exploding tags, and Sasuke knew when to keep his mouth shut. Especially when he was around a certain loudmouthed, orange ninja.

"Nothing." He said.

Naruto edged closer.

"Is it a secret?"

"Sort of." Sasuke pulled away slightly.

"Tell me."

"No."

"Please?" Naruto moved even closer.

"No."  
"Pretty please?" Closer.

"I said no. And don't sit so close to me, you'll make me smell like a bowl of ramen."

"But ramen's good." He placed a hand on Sasuke's thigh.

"I wouldn't mind if you smelled like ramen…."

Sasuke looked down on the hand rubbing his thigh, for a second torn between his word towards Neji and the prospects of a very horny Naruto, but then he pulled himself together and moved the hand away.

"Well, I would. And no, I'm not going to tell you."

Naruto pouted and returned back to his original seat.

"Just because Neji's so touchy about his sex life…"

"I don't think it's because of that, Naruto, I think…"

He cut himself of and stared at the blonde.

"What did you just say?"

Naruto looked as if he had just been caught with his hands in the worlds largest, most forbidden cookie jar.

"I didn't say anything."

Sasuke narrowed his eyes.

"Yes you did."

"No."

"Naruto."

"No, I swear."

Sasuke leaned over and caught the blonde between himself and the armrest of the couch.

"How did you know that?"

"Eh… know what?"

"Stop it, Dobe. How did you know what Neji and I were talking about?"

"Ehm… lucky guess?"

"Naruto!"

"Okay, okay! But get of me, I can't breath!"

Sasuke sat up, but still sat close enough to be able to grab hold of the blonde if he tried to make a run for it.

"There. Now tell me what the hell is going on here. Neji was a total wreck when he crashed into me and now all of a sudden _you_ seem to know exactly why. So spill it."

Naruto squirmed in his seat but under Sasuke's interrogating stare his tongue soon changed up to the highest gear.

"Okay, so the day after the party, you know when we sorta saved that guy from Neji, I walked home right, and then I got dragged into an alley and when I turned around _Gaara_ was standing right in front of me, and I though I was gonna DIE you know, so I'm like; "Hey Gaara, watsup?", and he went "…" and then I asked him what he wanted and then he told me that he had been attacked by Neji at Ino's party and that one thing had led to another and they had been erh… _getting it on_. So I'm standing there like "wtf?" and then he starts asking me all these crazy ass questions about feelings and sex and stuff and I go like; "Hey, slow down", like "Why don't you talk to Neji about this?" And then he goes all quiet on me and says that Neji doesn't seem to be talking to him and then he asks me what to do to get Neji's attention back, and since he had been talking about sex only a couple of seconds ago, I tell him to pounce him, because that worked for me and you right, so he goes thanks, and you know that's pretty big when Gaara says thanks cause he's usually such a stuck up bastard, like a rock or something, so I think "hey, maybe he's not such an asshole after all." So I'm just about to tell him that he should probably take it a bit easy with Neji, since, you know Neji's not that open-minded about sex yet, but when I opened my mouth he was already gone, and I went "Oh shit…" and then I walked home."

Sasuke stared at him, trying to link the scrambled words together into some kind of sentence with an actual _meaning_ behind it.

One sentence, however, got stuck as soon as it was spoken.

"You told him to do _what_?!" He stared horrified at Naruto.

"Eeh… pounce him?"

"Yes, that! What were you thinking?! I've spent all afternoon, trying to calm that ponytail-wearing mess down thanks to your stupid sex-counselling!"

"How was I supposed to know Gaara would push him up against a tree and try to rape him?"

"You could have used your brain for example! Besides…!"

Sasuke's hand grappled around Naruto's jumpsuit and pulled him up to his face.

"How, if I may ask, did you know Gaara did that?"

"Intuition."  
"Fuck no, Dobe. You've talked to him again haven't you?"

"Maybe."

Sasuke let go of his boyfriend and leaned back against the couch with a frustrated sigh while hiding his face in his hands.

"What did you tell him?"

"Well… he was a bit mad. He said that pouncing didn't work."

"Wow, Sherlock."

"So… I told him to… do it… again…"

There was a suffocating silence and then Sasuke parted his hands slightly to the side, staring up at the ceiling.

"What?"

Naruto grinned sheepishly.

"I shouldn't have?"

He barely caught a glimpse of something crimson red before Sasuke's hands flashed out a second time and very efficiently pinned him down on the couch, making Naruto's head hit the armrest with a loud thud.

He opened his eyes and found himself staring up at Sasuke's Sharingan-red ones and gulped.

"You complete moron! Do you have any idea what kind of disaster my day has been?!"

"I… I never asked for you to get involved in this!"

"Well, it seems to me like you didn't have to, does it?!"

Naruto scowled.

"You can't blame me for Neji asking you for help! I'm not in control over him!"

"It's your fault he needed help in the first place!"

"That's a really bad argument, you know!" Naruto snorted, not caring about Sasuke's eyes getting more crimson for every exchanged sentence.

"You…You…"

Sasuke's arm raised and Naruto shut his eyes, awaiting the blow from a very hard Uchiha fist, but when it came, it didn't hit him, but the pillow next to his head.

He slowly opened his eyes when he felt Sasuke's body move away from his and saw that the Uchiha was sitting next to him, looking up at the ceiling again. Only this time, he was smiling.

"Eh… Sasuke?"

"I just thought of something."

Naruto swallowed. A Sasuke smiling like that was bad, but the tone in his voice had "danger zone" written all over the place.

"Oh… really?"

"Yeah."

He turned around and looked at Naruto.

"I think I've actually saved the situation."  
"You have?"

"Yes, I have."

"How?"

Sasuke sighed and leaned over, once again trapping Naruto on the couch, although gentler this time.

"You told Gaara to pounce Neji a second time, didn't you?"

"Right…"  
"And I told Neji to do something unexpected if he did, didn't I?"

"Yeah…"

"Then, everything's fine."

"Huh? But I thought you said that you had saved the situation?"

"I have."

"What?! The situation is exactly the same as before!"

"No it's not."

"Yes it is!"

Naruto tried to push the other boy off, but Sasuke didn't move.

"Hey, take it easy. Thanks to your little slip and my expertise advisory…"

"Tch, some advisory, you basically told him nothing that he couldn't figure out himself."

Sasuke looked down on him and Naruto saw that the smirk was back, mixed with a predatory glint in those black eyes that he knew all too well.

The raven leaned down over him and placed a finger against his lips, his own lips only a fingers breadth away.

"Just wait and see. This mess might turn out quite entertaining after all…" 


	6. Something Unexpected

**Something Unexpected**

Neji closed the gate to the Hyuuga compound with a heavy sigh.

He had just left Sasuke and gotten home and the sun was already on its way down behind the rooftops.

With legs that felt like led, he made his way into the house and into the kitchen. When his stomach made a loud rumbling sound he realized that he hadn't eaten anything since breakfast today. He walked over to the refrigerator to see if there were any leftovers and was just about to place his hand on the handle when he heard the front door behind him open and close with a creek and the silent sound of footsteps approaching the kitchen.

Quickly he pulled away from the fridge and placed himself by the door, pulling up a kunai from the kunai pouch at his side.

The footsteps got closer, sneaking silently across the floorboards.

Neji remembered the footsteps from the alley the night Gaara had been following him and his grip around the blade hardened, his heart suddenly beating very fast.

So, the bastard had the nerve to come inside his house? Had he been stalking him again?

A shadow formed on the floor and a sandal clad foot emerged in the doorway.

Neji's hand flashed out and grabbed hold of the intruder, swirled around and in the next second he held his kunai pressed against a pale neck.

An awfully… female neck.

"N-Neji-Niisama….!"

"Hinata!"

He quickly let go of her arm and stepped back. Hinata stared at him.

"W-what's wrong?"

"Nothing. Nothing at all." He hurriedly put the kunai back in its pocket, silently cursing himself for being so paranoid. Of course the Sabaku wouldn't just come walking into the compound like that! He hadn't dared to make contact until Neji was completely alone after all.

The thought brought back images of what had happened earlier but he quickly shrugged them off. He didn't want to think about that.

Meanwhile, Hinata was still looking at him worriedly.

"Its fine." He assured her, a little too harsh maybe, because she flinched at the sound of his voice and looked away, making him feel even more stupid.

Damn it, it wasn't Hinata's fault that he was being all jumpy! But she had startled him and he just… acted on an instinct, that's all.

By the way… why had she been sneaking like that in the first place? Usually you don't sneak around in your own house…

"Where have you been all day?" he asked, noticing that she flinched again.

"W-what?" her voice did a sudden high pitched noise and she quickly straightened up.

"I was looking for you this morning, but you weren't home. Where have you been?"

"O-Oh, I-I've… Ehm, I was just… and then... a-and…"

Her fingers were fidgeting like crazy and she was suddenly looking everywhere except at him, her face growing more and more red by the second as she stutteringly was trying to form, what seemed to be, a very complicated sentence.

Neji glanced down on her shoes, noticing that she was squirming her feet around as well.

He went back to her now bright red face and sighed.

"Never mind, I don't need to know."

Hinata looked as if he had just given her a free-ticket to heaven.

"O-okay… Uhm… W-well, I-I guess… I…. I should go to bed now."

She hurriedly began walking out of the kitchen, bumped into a chair on the way and stumbled out the door. Neji looked at the opening where she had disappeared and raised a brow.

"Hinata, are you all right?"

"I-I'm fine! Really! Heh…Uhm… G-g-good night, Nii-sama!"

Then he heard the door to her room open and close with a slight bang.

He sighed. Hinata sure was a strange girl. Sometimes he couldn't believe that he actually was related to her…

Deciding that he really wasn't feeling like eating anything right now he went to his room and threw himself down on the bed.

He was having a headache again. This day had been far too weird and overthrowing for him to handle all at once.

He still couldn't believe it!

He could not have had sex with Sabaku no Gaara!

There was just no way!

First of all, he was a guy!

They were both, very much, _male_!

Secondly, how the hell would that have happened?

Usually, you tend to _talk_ to each other before going on to sex. Or in some cases, at least flirt a bit!

If Neji had tried such a thing, even if he was obviously drunk, Gaara would have turned him into a pile of meat and blood immediately.

Wait! Why was he assuming that _he_ had started it? Even Sasuke said that Gaara seemed to be the dominant one, so it should be quite clear that _he_ had started it all by flirting with Neji first!

Arrgh! Why was he even thinking about this!?

He had not had sex with that weirdo! End of story!

Groaning, he buried his face in the pillow and sighed.

Why? He asked himself for the hundredth time.

What could he possibly have done to deserve this mental torture?

Flipping over to lay on his back again he stared up at the ceiling.

He thought about what Sasuke had told him earlier.

Do something unexpected.

Like what?

Scream at the top of his lungs that he was being molested by a red haired sand-perv?

Well, it would certainly make him loose his ground… and get Neji killed in the process…

And act indifferent.

Sasuke had told him that too. To act indifferent to everything.

That would probably be the hardest thing.

Acting like nothing while getting raped just sounded… wrong…

**-----Flashback-----**

"There, you did it again!"

"No I didn't!"

"Yes, you did! You flinched! Stop doing that!"

"I'm trying!"

"I told you, you're not supposed to bother about what I'm doing!"

"It's kind of _hard_ not to bother about what you're doing, Uchiha!"

"That's why we're training, genius."

"Hey, this was you're idea not mine."

"You think I'm doing this for fun, Hyuuga? Naruto would kill me if he saw this, you know."

"Yeah, keep talking as if this is hard for _you_. I'm the one who's not suppose to 'bother'"

"You want a piece of me that bad Hyuuga?"

"Oh, shut it!"

"Hn, by the way you're flinching and trembling one could think you've got the hots for me or something."

"I am _not_ trembling!"

"You were just a moment ago."

"Was not!"

"Okay, smart-ass, lets do it again. Stay still this time."

"It's not that easy when you've got someone groping you!"

"I'm not groping you; I'm just standing closer then usual. Don't flatter yourself."

"Well, could you at least stop breathing in my ear then?"

"You think Gaara's going to keep a six feet distance? Trust me, if he catches you again, breath in your ear will be the least of your problems. Now let's do this."

….

"Neji!"

"What!?"

"Stop. Flinching!"

"I haven't moved!"

"You're twitching your head!"

"It's a natural reflex!"

"Well, don't do it!"

"I told you, I'm trying!"

"Okay, okay. Just shut up and be still. We're going to do this, even if I'll have to nail your clothes to the wall first…"

"Don't you dare, Uchiha."

"Hn, then stay still or I'll nail your head instead…"

**-----End Flashback-----  
**

Neji sighed.

Yeah, that had gone well…

But the worst was that the Uchiha was right. If Gaara got hold of him again he wouldn't stop just because Neji felt a bit uncomfortable.

Gaara had seemed to like that Neji fought back, so therefore Sasuke had told him to act as if he wasn't even there.

"Even if he shoves his damn tongue down your throat, don't move. Then wait until his guard is down and make a dash for it."

Easier said then done, bastard.

Well, he wasn't going to let himself get caught a second time anyway. That red haired freak was not going to get near him again.

And with that newfound determination, Neji slid of his clothes and went to sleep.

------------------

The new day dawned peacefully.

Neji got up, got dressed, had a quick breakfast before he went out the door and headed for the training grounds.

It might be that he walked a bit faster then usual, but that was just because he didn't want to be late for training and if he turned around to look behind himself on the way, it was just because he thought that he had heard… something.

Nothing unusual.

At the training site he met up with Tenten, Lee and his sensei.

He wasn't one bit surprised about hearing that Lee and Gai-sensei already had raced around the court at least a dozen times as a warm up.

With a look at Tenten the two of them walked of a bit and began their own training procedure while the other two bolts of childish energy kept sprinting around the clearing in a battle of stamina.

Neji and Tenten started of with some light sparring. Out of courtesy, since it was just training, Neji didn't use his chakra when he landed a hit. Besides, Tenten wouldn't make a very good sparring partner if she wasn't able to move.

Training felt good. It was nice to be able to focus his mind on something else then the past days' events and he found that his spirit raised higher the more effort he put into the exercise.

When they eventually stopped to take a break he felt as if he could have kept going for hours more. To his disappointment, Tenten wasn't of the same opinion, so he was more or less forced to break with the others.

"You seem happy today, Neji." Tenten remarked and passed him a water bottle. "Did something happen?"

Neji opened his mouth to answer that no, he was just feeling like training, but was cut of by Lee.

"Oh! Is it because you found that girl? Have you spoken to her?"

He was just about to answer no to that as well, but was once again cut of by Gai-sensei.

"What was that, Neji? Have you finally been able to hunt down the reason to your new youthful self?"

"What? Neji found a girl?" Tenten stared at the two green males and then at Neji.

"Where did you meet her?"

Neji, even though he knew it was useless, took a breath and was about to give a somewhat edited story of what had happened at the party, but didn't even get to "Well you see…" before Lee, oh so considerately, took over for him.

"Neji-san met a girl at Ino's party, and…" He glanced at Neji and squirmed slightly.

"I'm not sure if I'm supposed to say more, really. I think that should be Neji's own decision if he wants to tell more then that."

Neji mentally gave the other boy a punch in the face. The moron could might as well have shouted it from the rooftops.

Tenten, who got a bit stunned by the unintentional flash of information, suddenly giggled in a way that Neji never had heard her do before. An awfully _girly_ giggle…

"You… At that party? Is that why you came and asked me those silly questions the other day?"

Before he could answer her, she bursted out laughing and leaned back against a tree trunk.

"I-I never thought… that y-you of all people would get together with someone… at a p-party!"

For some reason, she seemed to find the whole thing extremely amusing and almost laughed herself to tears. Neji couldn't see anything funny with the situation. Not one thing.

"So, Neji, my dear student. Were you able to meet with her?"

"Yeah, who was it?"

Now it was Neji's turn to squirm. The other three were staring at him, obviously waiting for him to tell them who the mystery-girl was and even Tenten calmed down and looked at him.

"Was she pretty?" she asked.

"Well…" he started a bit hesitantly.  
"I bet she was, right Neji-san?" Lee's eyes were glistening with conviction.

Gai raised a lecturing finger and looked at Lee.

"Oh, now Lee, love is not based on looks alone. I think it must have been her intellect that attracted our dear team mate first, am I not right, Neji?"

"Actually…"

"But, Gai-sensei, looks plays a very big part when meeting a person for the first time." Tenten objected.

"Yes, but it's not the looks that makes a relationship work, is it? I'm sure that Neji will agree with me on that point."

"Eh…"

"Oh, but Gai-sensei! Gai-sensei!"

"Yes Lee?"

"I think that she must have been very beautiful if she managed to catch Neji-san in just one night!"

"Ah, I agree, she must have had a very special charm to achieve such a thing. But as it is, she has obviously melted the frozen heart of our young friend, and thus we should not make any preconceptions about her."

"Of course not, Gai-sensei!"

"That's it, Lee my boy! But now, let's listen to when our friend tells us about his newfound love."

Once again, all eyes were on him, but at this point Neji had had enough and stood to his feet.

"Huh? Neji where are you going?" Tenten looked at him.

"I just remembered something I have to do."

He turned and began walking away.

"Oh, Gai-sensei! Do you think he's going to meet with her now?"

He could hear his teacher make a quiet sob at the attempted whisper.  
"Oh, how beautiful! Secret love meetings while in the spring of youth!"

He quickly picked up the pace of his steps. He wanted to get away from Gai before the man decided to give him a good-luck hug in the name of youthful love and cry sentimental tears on his shoulder… or worse.

Soon the voices of the other three disappeared behind him, something he was very thankful of since the last thing he had heard was Gai-sensei proclaiming that "when he was young there was this beautiful girl he knew and one day they had been alone in the office and…"

Thankfully he had not heard more then that.

He shuddered. He did not want his brain to get permanently damaged by overhearing the story of the youthful Gai-sensei's love adventures. _No thank you_!

He walked back into town, not really thinking about where he was heading, letting his feet carry him wherever they wanted to.

Stupid Lee. Why did he have to ask such a stupid question in front of the others? He distantly wondered what Tenten had been referring to when she used the term "get together". Did she understand that it might have been more then just a snogging-moment in a corner somewhere?

No!

He was doing it again!

He had been able to keep that guy's face out of his head all day, but now everything was ruined!

Damn it, he was going to kill Lee when he got back! This was completely and entirely his fault!

Ill-tempered he stomped onto a side street and began walking down it, cursing all three of his team mates under his breath, when he became aware of another person walking towards him from the other side of the same alley.

His heart froze in his chest.

Damn it!

Gaara had already seen him, so he couldn't turn around and walk back. That would have been too obvious.

_Okay, concentrate now. Remember what Sa__suke said. Just pretend like he's not there and walk right pass him._

Straightening his back he kept walking, keeping his eyes fixed on a spot straight ahead next to the red head.

They got closer to each other, but since he didn't look at him he couldn't tell if Gaara was looking back at him or not.

They walked passed each other, the sleeves of their clothes almost brushing against one another due to the narrow alley and Neji had to strain himself not to let out a relieved sigh when the boy disappeared from the corner of his eye.

He hadn't done anything. He had made it. He…

Then a hand grasped hard around his shoulder and he was slammed up against the brick wall so hard it knocked the breath out of his lungs. Then Gaara was over him, pressing his body tightly against his, his face only a breath away, looking at him hungerly with jade green eyes.

"Trying to play games with me, Hyuuga?" He hissed.

Neji was about to snap out a reply, but remembered that he was supposed to act indifferent in the last second and turned away instead.

"Look at me." Gaara demanded.

Neji didn't move.

"Look at me!" Gaara's hand shot up and grabbed Neji by the hair and roughly turned his head towards him and it took all Neji had not to hiss and pull away. But he just kept staring straight ahead, even if straight ahead right now happened to be into Gaara's eyes.

He couldn't put his finger on what it was, but something seemed different this time. There was something in Gaara's eyes that hadn't been there before. Almost like… a pleading.

_No, stop it! The guy tried to rape you for crying out loud! Don't freak out and start sympathising with him__ because he's looking at you funny!_

He stood his ground and kept staring back at the other boy, noticing with a mental smirk how Gaara seemed to find his behaviour a bit confounding.

"Not talking today, _Hyuuga_?"

_I wonder why he's calling me that. Is he afraid to use my real name?_

Suddenly Gaara's other hand were on his stomach, underneath his clothes, touching with fingers that felt like ice against his skin.

"It's all right." He whispered, almost purred out. "I'm going to loosen that tongue of yours soon enough…"

Then the hand moved down and was placed between his legs with a rough squeeze.

Neji's eyes clamped shut, but then he heard Sasuke's voice inside his head, annoyingly mockingly and he could actually see that smirk of his clearly in front of him as if it had been imprinted on the back his eyelids.

_You know, when you keep your eyes closed like that it looks as if you're enjoying this__…_

He snapped his eyes open again.

No way was he going to let this bastard see any sign of weakness from him!

He looked at the other boy, awaiting the next physical assault, but it never came.

Gaara was looking at him again, as if he was studying his face.

Then the hand on his lower region began moving, slowly, palm open, creating an even pressure against his groin.

Neji swallowed the gasp he was about to make. He had expected something like this, but still it caught him of guard enough to almost make him gasp out loud.

Gaara kept looking at him, searching for any sign that his actions were affecting his prey.

The pace quickened, the pressure increasing, and to his suppressed horror Neji realised that he was staring to become hard, if his mind wanted to or not.

_Focus!__ Focus damn it!_

He refused to let anything show on his face. He didn't even blink, didn't move a muscle.

The staring contest continued, but by now Neji wasn't the only one who had noticed what was happening to him.

Gaara leaned in with a smirk, finally breaking eye contact and allowing Neji to at least blink, and placed his lips just below Neji's ear.

"You're not going to make any sounds for me, Hyuuga?" he whispered.

The hand suddenly stopped.

"You think you can win this?"

Then there was the unmistakable sound of a zipper being pulled down slowly and Neji's eyes unwillingly widened.

_He wasn't going to__…_

"I said I would loosen up your tongue, didn't I?"

Gaara's fingers slowly played around the opening in Neji's now unzipped trousers.

"I'm going to make you scream my name, Hyuuga…"

_No! This was not going the way he had planned! He had to stop this! It had to stop! He couldn't let him…_

The thought was cut of when Gaara sneaked his hand in through the opening and grabbed hold of his involuntary erection and began stroking it slowly.

To his frustration, Neji's eyes fluttered, but somehow he managed to keep them open and at the same time silence the groan fighting its way up his throat.

Gaara's tongue darted out and began licking at his neck, making it even more difficult for Neji to keep his thoughts straight.

He had to stop this! He had to do something!

_Like what?!_

_Something unexpected…_

The thought hit him like a hammer hits a nail and without thinking, without knowing why his subconscious decide to do just _that_, he raised his hands and grabbed hold of Gaara's hair, pulled him away from his neck and then resolutely crashed his lips against his.

Gaara froze and for a moment he seemed completely stunned to what Neji was doing.

Then without a warning, he pushed himself closer, shoving Neji harder up against the wall and the hand went back to its previous actions.

In that moment, Neji wanted to break away and, to use Sasuke's words, make a run for it, but for some reason he found that he couldn't. And it wasn't just because Gaara was very much efficiently pinning him against a wall. He just couldn't break away.

Gaara's hand did a new squeeze around his member and this time he couldn't stop his eyes from shutting and a strained moan escaped his lips.

When he did, Gaara took his chance and quickly let his tongue slip in between his parted lips and began swirling around Neji's in a dance far more complicated then any Hakkesho Kaiten would ever be.

Neji couldn't help it. His mind was clouded over and it seemed as if he couldn't get a single reasonable thought to form in his head. His body didn't obey him anymore and when the movement of Gaara's hand speeded up his hips bucked, pushing against Gaara's own hard groin in an unconscious movement, making the other boy moan out loud into his mouth.

As if someone had stung him with a three inch needle, Neji's eyes shot up and he roughly shoved Gaara away, making the other boy hit the wall on the opposite side of the alley.

He stood there, panting for air and just stared at the sand ninja. Then, quickly, careful not to start running, he turned and walked out of the alley, the same way as he had entered, with thoughts screaming inside his head.

_What the hell__ did I just do!? I kissed him! I fucking kissed him!_

Once he turned around the corner he picked up his speed even more, expecting to hear pursuing footsteps behind him at any minute, but they never came.

Remembering that his pants were still unzipped he quickly closed them, looking around to see if anyone had seen him and then kept on walking.

When he got back to the training ground he distantly heard Gai say something about the sweetness of youth and felt him give him a fatherly pat on the shoulder.

Tenten asked him if he got the thing he was supposed to do done and he answered that yes, he had. Then Lee began yelling about that he wanted to spar with him and Neji nodded absentmindedly and barely had time to dodge an orange clad wrist when it came flying through the air towards him.

After that he was forced to gather his thoughts and concentrate on the fight, since Lee seemed to be as energetic as Neji felt worn out.

When the training was over, he went straight home, keeping his eyes strictly focused on the road in front of him, and he was not, under any circumstances, thinking about a certain red haired sand ninja…

* * *

**Mohahaha, feel the ****power of an overly tired fanfic-writer!!!**

**Next chapter will be up very soon! Ah, the sweet pleasure of youthful denial…**

**Hehe, I love to torture Neji, maybe I've said that already?**

**Now, review onegai shimasu!**

**Ja ne!  
**


	7. Between Dreams and Reality

**Between ****Dreams and Reality**

Neji saw the shadow sitting in his window silhouette itself against the moonlight and he knew who it was, but still he couldn't find the strength to move.

Gaara slowly stepped down from the windowsill and walked up to his bed, bending down and letting his hand run over Neji's body, the touch of skin on skin only being separated by the thin sheets.

Neji gasped when the other boy suddenly placed himself on top of him, straddling his waist and tearing off the covers, letting his hands roam over his now exposed, naked chest.

The red head leaned down and looked at him, pale, green eyes glistening in the silvery light from the moon outside.

"I'm going to make you scream my name, Hyuuga…"

Neji grappled the sheets when suddenly a tongue slid over his left nipple, and then groaned when he felt the light nibble of teeth on the same spot.

Gaara's hands travelled over his body, sending shivers of mixed heat and cold up and down his spine.

"Aah…" The moan broke out from his lips before he was even aware of that it was coming. Gaara's mouth descended to continue its wicked deed to his stomach, leaving a quickly cooling trail of saliva in its wake.

Neji felt the sheets slide off his body and then he cried out loud when his member was surrounded by the warm walls of Gaara's mouth, sucking greedily on the heated flesh.

He moaned out again. It was as if some invisible bond had been loosened from his tongue and he kept moaning and trashing his head from side to side, his hair spread out over the pillow and his hands thrown over his head in submission.

It felt so good, not fighting back, giving in…

"Ah!"

Gaara stopped sucking and looked up at him.

"Scream my name…"

His hand grasped around his cock and began pumping it slowly.

"Ah-aah…"

_Faster._

"Say it…"

_Harder._

"Ga-ah!"

Then the mouth was back, the tongue sliding and licking, sucking hard, hand moving up and down, quickening, white flashes filling up his mind, back arching…

"Gaara!"

He sat up, panting hard, clutching the sheets with both of his hands, staring at the empty spot in front of him.

The moon shone in through his closed window, lighting up his bed, making the sweat on his body shimmer.

A dream.

He groaned when he felt the sheets rub against his groin, sighing when a sticky substance smeared of on his inner thigh.

_Damn it._

-------------

He had _not _enjoyed that!

He resolutely stabbed a piece of meat lying on the grille with one of his hashi.

Why would he have enjoyed that? It was completely ridiculous!

The people around him seemed to be able to pick up on that the Hyuuga wasn't in one of his most flattering moods and most of them took a long way around him where he was sitting by one of the tables at the barbeque restaurant.

He glared at another piece of meat and stabbed that one as well.

It was just a dream! People can't decide what to dream about! It wasn't like he actually _wanted_ to dream about that guy!

_Stab._

It was just incredibly…

_Stab._

Copiously…

_Stab._

Immeasurably…

_Stab-Stab. _

Stupid.

"Oi, Neji!"

He stopped glaring at the massacred rests of his speared dinner and turned around to see who the person was that would be stupid enough to disturb him in his brooding.

The blonde flopped down on the seat opposite to him, not bothering to wait for an invitation, throwing his hands behind his head and grinning widely.

"What do you want?" Neji sneered. He didn't want to be disturbed right now.

"Oh, sounds like someone woke up on the wrong side of bed this morning." Naruto pouted, glancing down underneath the table at him and then looked up again, suddenly smirking.

"I just had some time to kill." He then proclaimed and looked around the room.

"Then would you mind killing it somewhere else? I'm busy."

"With what?" Naruto's gaze quickly dropped underneath the table again, but then returned to his inspection of the room.

"None of your business."

"Oh." Once again his attention was turned towards what seemed to be Neji's lower regions and by now Neji began feeling a bit uncomfortable with the staring and shifted in his seat.

"So… slept well tonight?"

There was something mockingly about that question, but Neji couldn't pinpoint exactly what.

"As well as expected." He said shortly.

"Ahaaa…" Naruto looked at him and smirked smugly.

"Your leg is shaking." He stated.

Neji looked down and saw that his left leg was indeed, shaking, as if it was experiencing a personal little earthquake, and quickly straightened it out.

He looked up at Naruto again, who were now grinning openly at him.

"That's a sign of sexual frustration, you know."

"And with that you're meaning what, exactly?"

"Oh, nothing…"

Neji watched the madly grinning blonde in front of him, keeping his mask of indifference while his thoughts made an unpleasant turn in his head.

Was it possible… No, the Uchiha had said that he wouldn't tell anyone.

But on the other hand, he and Naruto were in fact very close to each other, in more way then one as a matter of fact, so maybe…

Naruto could be a real pain sometimes and after a couple of hours of nagging even the most persistent shinobi would give in… But Sasuke was an Uchiha, and the Uchiha's were known for their unnatural stubbornness.

The fact that the Hyuuga clan basically shared the same kind of reputation conveniently slipped his mind at the moment.

No, Sasuke wouldn't have said anything.

The blonde's comment must have been a coincidence.

"Oi, Dobe."

_Speaking of the devil…_

Sasuke walked up to them and looked down at Naruto.

"The Hokage wants to see us. We're being assigned a new mission."

"Oh, cool! is it a B-ranked one? Or an A?"

Sasuke snorted at the blonde's enthusiasm.

"It's a regular C-mission so don't get your hopes up. We probably won't even leave the village."

Naruto's shoulder slouched and he looked seriously disappointed. Sasuke glanced down at him and then to Neji's surprise, he reached out and placed his hand on the blonde's shoulder in a comforting gesture.

Even Naruto seemed caught of guard by the sudden sign of affection from the raven boy, in public nonetheless and he looked up at Sasuke with big, questioning eyes.

Sasuke met the look from his secret boyfriend and quickly turned away, letting go of the blonde's shoulder, looking slightly embarrassed by his own actions.

"We should get going. I don't want to get scolded by Tsunade because you're slow, Dobe."

"Hai." Naruto shone up again and stood up from his seat.

Sasuke glanced down at Neji, and then over to his hiashi, which at this point looked more like a skewer then a tool used for eating.

"Well… see you later, Hyuuga."

Neji nodded and went back to the intensive glowering of his food and the other two walked away.

After a while he glanced down and cursed loudly to himself, hurriedly straightening his leg out.

He was _not _sexually frustrated, damn it!

-------------

Gaara groaned when Neji's nails dug into his back. His lover's lips were sucking at his collarbone, burning, scorching, causing blissful torture to his skin.

He kept thrusting, gasping when Neji arched upward to meet him, sharp teeth scraping against his neck.

"Gaara…"

The mouth moved up to whisper and nibble at his ear, making him shiver.

"Gaara, faster…"

He would not be able to hold it for much longer… Not when Neji were doing those things to him.

In that moment Neji's tongue flicked over the shell of his ear and the Hyuuga moaned out loudly, clinging desperately to Gaara's body.

"Yes, Gaara!"

"Neji!"

His eyes shot open and he barely had time to register the moon-enlightened ceiling of his room before the orgasm hit his body and he came over his sheets, clenching his teeth to keep from crying out loud into the darkness.

He lay there, panting hard and clutching the sheets in his hand, trying to clear the remains of the dim, white lights from his mind.

Hissing to himself he then threw of his sheets and sat up in his bed, resting his head in his hands.

_I__ fell asleep._

He quickly looked around, but nothing seemed to be out of the ordinary.

_Shukaku... had not…?_

He pulled his hands through his hair and stood up and walked over to the window.

His intention had been to lie down, for only a minute, but apparently he had fallen asleep instead.

The moon outside wasn't even close to full yet, but that alone was not enough of an explanation to why the sand-demon had not taken its chance and broken free.

Images of his dream flashed through his mind and he groaned again, ignoring the slight flutter in his lower stomach when the thought of the Hyuuga's naked body entered his senses.

_**Had a nice**__** nap, whelp?**_

Gaara's head shot up and he growled inwardly.

_What do you want?_

The demon let out a shrieking laughter.

_**Just **__**checking up on my lovesick vessel. So, tell me, did you enjoy that perverted, little dream of yours?**_

_I'm not discussing that with you._

Again the insane laughter was heard and it was only the knowledge of that it wouldn't help, that kept Gaara from covering his ears with his hands.

_**Not discussing it with me?! Don't make me laugh, whelp! I know everything that goes on in**__**side your little head.**_

_Then I guess you __won't have to ask._

_**Don't play games with me, Gaara. **_

The mocking tone was suddenly replaced with a new, harsh one.

_**I let you have that dream as a treat. Push me and you won't **__**get that lucky next time.**_

Gaara stiffened.

_You planted that dream in my head?_

He could feel the demon's smug grin as he spoke again.

_**Me? Oh, no.**__** You did that all by your self.**_

He snorted.

_**Don't blame your lack of self control on me.**_

Gaara ignored the last comment and raised his head and looked up at the moon shard hovering above the village of Konoha.

_Why?_

_**Why what?**_

_Why did you let me sleep? You never have before._

Shukaku let out a new lowering snort.

_**I'm not obligated to share my **__**reasoning with you, whelp.**_

Gaara sighed.

_Suit yourself_

_**I intend to.**_

And with that, the sand-demon's presence was gone.

Gaara kept staring out the window for a while longer, but then went back to his bed and lay down again; avoiding the sheets he had been covered with before.

Images of the dream kept rolling in front of him when he closed his eyes and he distantly recalled the sound of Neji's voice calling out his name and he shivered.

His thoughts inevitably went back to the events of the day before.

Neji had kissed him.

No matter how he turned it, that's what had happened.

Neji had kissed _him_.

One corner of his mouth moved upward a bit, only to quickly pull down again.

Yes, he had kissed him. And he had also pushed him away.

He had pushed him away and left.

Why had he done that?

And why had he been acting as if he didn't even notice his presence at first, only to turn around and do such a thing the second after?

He rolled over to lie on his side, feeling an uncomfortable clenching in his chest.

A clenching that had become increasingly frequent during the last week.

He shut his eyes.

The Hyuuga had started it all.

It was his fault that he was feeling like… like _this_.

He had even gone as far as to ask Naruto for help, trying to find some sort of guidance in this new, unfamiliar territory.

Of course he had seen what people in his… _situation_… usually did to get what they wanted. He knew what you were supposed to say, he had observed the gestures, studied the pitch of the voices and the postures of the bodies… And he didn't understand it at all.

He couldn't for his mind understand why people seemed to have the desire to tip-toe around these kinds of things. Why put up with these stupid games that only made the matter even harder to understand? If you wanted someone, why couldn't you just claim them?

Like at the party. Things had been so simple then.

They had wanted, taken and given, bluntly, honestly…

Now they just seemed to walk around in circles, and it drove Gaara insane!

He couldn't even tell if Neji was still interested.

He had heard about the term "one-night-stand" before, he wasn't stupid, but something inside him was cringing, clawing at the inside of his body at the thought of that's all it might have been.

He shook his head, rubbing his temples in frustration and got up from the bed again, searching the room for his clothes, put them on and headed for the door.

He couldn't stay in here, the walls of the room was suffocating him.

-------------

His footsteps echoed as he walked the empty streets, the sound bouncing of the walls of the alley and then dying out only to be replaced with the vibrating sound of another one.

Usually he would just sit on a rooftop somewhere and look at the sky, but tonight he just couldn't find the peace to be still, so he walked.

Still, he had learned from younger years to keep of the larger streets and stay in the seldom used alleys, even in the dead of the night.

The alleys were his safest refuge after the rooftops

No one would scream at him in the alleys. No rocks would be thrown at him, even if that seldom happened anymore.

The alleys were safe, and he could walk them without caring where he was heading, not thinking about if he would actually encounter someone on the way.

The sound of his footsteps echoed through the night, alley after alley, street after street and somehow, without really knowing how he got there, he ended up outside the Hyuuga mansion.

He stopped, feeling that he probably shouldn't be at this place right now.

The only time he had been close to the Hyuuga compound before, was when he had followed Neji there a couple of days earlier. But that had been different, since the Hyuuga had actually known that he had been there.

If he was caught here now, things could get uncomfortable.

He turned around and took three steps away… and stopped.

_No, it would just be stupid._

He glanced over his shoulder at the building behind him.

_It _was_ in the middle of the night… Surely he wouldn't be awake now?_

He turned around again, and took a single step forward and stopped anew.

Hesitation had never been something Gaara had felt very often. He was used to having one will and two choices, choosing the one that best fitted his interests at the moment.

Not being sure about what he wanted in the first place had never happened before.

The house was dark, no lights in the windows and no sounds coming from inside it.

It was asleep, just like the rest of the village.

_His house._

He walked up to the man-high wall surrounding the building and placed his hand on it, feeling its rough texture against his fingertips.

Lithely he jumped over it, landing on the soft grass on the other side, not even pausing to listen for any sounds inside the house.

His stalking abilities outclassed any of the other ninjas' in this village, so he wasn't a bit afraid of being discovered.

He walked over the grass, a mere shadow amongst others, sometimes casting glances inside through the windows.

The Hyuuga mansion turned out to be a one floor building, so he wouldn't have to scale any walls to find what he was looking for.

And he soon did, at the corner of the house, overlooking a small garden with a pond in its centre. A miniature waterfall was creating rippling music in the night air, accompanied by the faint rustles of the leaves of the many trees that surrounded Konoha.

There, on the other side of the clear glass, was a bed and on it laid the cause to his perplexities; Hyuuga Neji.

The moon was shining in on the bed, lighting up the other boy's pale skin, making it look as if it had been sprayed with silver.

His hair was spread out on his pillow with the raven strands flowing out around his head like a raven halo.

The features of his face were relaxed, lines peacefully smoothed out; giving the otherwise so serious looking teen a serene expression that probably few people had had the privilege to lay eyes upon.

Gaara couldn't get enough of that face. He stood outside the window, looking at the other boy, in that moment completely content with just being there, watching.

Then Neji moved.

Turning his head to the side and mumbling something before sinking back into sleep again.

If Gaara hadn't been who he was at that moment, he would have smiled at the sight.

Seconds after that, the raven boy moved again, squirming slightly underneath the sheets and again Gaara could see his lips moving, as if he was talking.

He raised a brow. He had not pegged the Hyuuga to be a sleep talker.

He kept watching, somehow finding the other teen's behaviour intriguing.

Neji's movements became more frequent and more trashing and Gaara's thoughts immediately went to the lines of a nightmare.

Neji's head was turning, shifting from side to side and Gaara watched as he leisurely raised his arms above his head, grabbing hold of the pillow with a light grip.

Gaara had had few nightmares in his life, mostly because of the fact that he didn't sleep, but the ones he had experienced had never, not once, involved placing your hands in _that _position.

He scowled and looked closer at the Hyuuga's face and the thoughts of nightmares were promptly washed away.

Neji's eyes were clenched shut, his mouth open, panting, and small beads of sweat had begun to form on his forehead. As Gaara watched, the lips parted and even though Gaara couldn't hear it, he knew that the sound that came out between them was not a gasp in fear, or a groan from pain.

At least not _that_ kind of pain.

It was first now that the red haired boy noticed that the white sheets that had been covering the other boy had slid down, revealing a toned, muscular chest. A chest that was rising and sinking in a quick, shallow pace.

Unconsciously, Gaara licked his lips, distantly aware of that his own breathing had increased in speed as well during the time he had watched the other tossing and turning on the bed.

Neji's hips bucked underneath the sheets and this time, the moan was loud enough to carry through the structure of the glass that separated him from his watcher.

The sound sent a pleasurable tingle down Gaara's spine and he leaned in closer to the window, his entire being aching to hear that sound again.

By now he could see the sweat glistening on the other boy's chest in the moonlight and a couple of strands of the long hair had laid itself over the lust filled features of his face.

"Ga-ah!"

Gaara's eyes widened.

Neji's hands grappled the pillow, seemingly strangling the fabric in between his fingers, his breathing speeding up until it became erratic and Gaara could only stare as the person of his most private dreams threw his head back against the pillow due to whatever action that was going on inside his dream.

"Gaara!"

Neji's eyes suddenly flashed open and he abruptly sat up in the bed, staring out into nothing in front of him.

Gaara, who suddenly became extremely aware of where he was and what he was doing moved away from the window and quickly made his way back to the wall and jumped over it.

On the other side, he kept going until he reached the safe shadows of the nearest alley where he leaned back heavily against the wall.

He could not have heard that right.

Neji could not have been calling out _his_ name.

Could he?

He noticed, with a slight discomfort that his heart was beating very fast in his chest, and with even more discomfort that another, still growing inconvenience, had settled in his pants.

He groaned in frustration and leaned his head back against the wall, closing his eyes.

_I__ shouldn't have done that..._

* * *

**Omg, I'm actually a bit nervous about this chapter.**

**Man, sometimes I think it would be easier to write a novel about the life of a rock then about what's going on in Gaara's head!**

**Anyway, hope you enjoyed it, and please review if you did!**

**Next chapter – Eavesdropping and a certain Blonde who ends up in a lot of trouble!**


	8. Unintended Revelations

**Unintended Revelations**

Naruto stepped outside his apartment door and turned around to lock it, reaching his hand into his pocked after the key.

"Naruto."

"GAAH!"

Naruto's heart almost leaped out of his throat when the voice spoke and he spun around only to come face to face with familiar, red hair and a pair of piercing green eyes.

"Gaara! I told you to stop sneaking up on me like that!"

Gaara looked at him with his usual indifferent face, displaying exactly how much he _didn't _care.

"I want to talk to you." He said instead. Naruto squirmed evadingly.

"Uh… Can't it wait? I've got to go and meet up with Sasu... eh, my team at the barbeque restaurant and I'm already late."

"No."

But Naruto had already started to back away.

He remembered how Sasuke had reacted when he found out about Naruto's other little helping on the redhead's love problem and he was not too eager on experience _that _again. And since Neji seemed to have adopted Sasuke as his own personal relationship councillor, every act Gaara did would immediately be transferred to said Uchiha, and thus Naruto would be blamed for it.

No, he was not going to get involved any deeper in this.

Sasuke would kill him.

"I'm sorry, I really got to go, how about some other time, ne?" He was just about to turn around completely and walk away when Gaara opened his mouth and said flatly;

"He kissed me."

…

Screw Sasuke.

"What!?" Naruto stared at the sand-nin as if he had just slapped him.

He couldn't have heard that right.

"He kissed me." Gaara repeated.

"I-I heard that! B-but you…? He…? _When_?!"

"The day before yesterday."

"Don't say it as if it was the most normal thing in the world! He _kissed_ you!"

Gaara actually frowned a little.

"I know that."

Naruto leaned back against the wall, completely overwhelmed by the sudden information.

Neji had kissed Gaara? Not the other way around?

How did that happen?

"How did that happen?" he asked out loud.

Gaara shrugged.

"I did what you told me to. And then he kissed me."

"You pounced him?"

"Since that's what you told me to, yes."

"Oh… right."

Naruto looked at the other boy, waiting for him to say something else, but Gaara just stood there.

"Sooo… you're dating now or what?"

Gaara's eyes turned towards the floor and the plain expression on his face suddenly didn't look so indifferent anymore.

"No."

Naruto blinked.

"Why not? If he kissed you, that must mean he feels the same, right? I mean, if you-…"

"He walked away."

"Huh?"

Okay, major confusion here.

First Neji kisses him and then _walks away_? Who the fuck walks away right after being kissed?! Or, in this matter, just kissed someone else!

"Oookay… just like that? Did he say anything?"

"No."

Alright, he didn't even come up with an excuse to leave?

Seemed as if the Hyuugas' distant relation with the Uchihas had given them something in common.

Thinking of the Uchiha, he had to get going, or Sasuke would be pissed at him for being late.

"Hey, Gaara, I _reall_y have to go now. Why don't we meet up later, then we can talk about this? I'll try and think something out until then, alright?"

Gaara looked as if he was thinking it through.

"Alright."

Naruto breathed out.

"Great!" he smiled and was about to walk away again when Gaara interrupted him a second time.

"There's one more thing."

"What?"

He looked at Gaara and tried to hide his annoyance. Couldn't he just let him go already?

"He…"

The redhead hesitated, an act that immediately refueled Naruto's curiosity. Gaara never hesitated! And… didn't it look as if he was squirming? Just a little bit?

"He what?" he asked, enquiring the other to go on.

Gaara's eyes flicked to his and then darted back to the floor.

"He dreams about me."

Naruto's brow rose.

"He told you that?"

Something about Neji confessing a thing like that just seemed completely out of character and Gaara confirmed it by shaking his head.

"No."

"The how do you know?"

Gaara suddenly gave him a glare, a glare that very much told him that he had asked the completely wrong question and slowly the insight started to emerge among the confused thoughts in Naruto's mind.

"You… you _spied_ on him?! While he slept? _At his house_?!"

The glare intensified and Naruto could feel how those eyes basically killed him, over and over again, painfully and slowly.

"Eh... never mind, it doesn't matter." He quickly added, cowering slightly behind raised hands.

Gaara kept glaring, but the force of it went down from killing to a mild beat up, so Naruto judged it to be safe to go on. He scratched the back of his head and laughed nervously.

"Hehe, so, eh... Are we talking about… _good_ dreams here, or… the opposite?

"Good dreams… I think."

Hesitation, again! What the hell did the Hyuuga do to this guy?!

"Well… then I guess that's a good thing, right? I mean, if he kissed you and you know for a fact that he dreams about you… it only proves that he likes you."

Gaara didn't answer; instead he turned away and began walking.

"You're going to be late." He pointed out in a voice that stated that the conversation now was over. Naruto blinked twice before realising that he was free to go.

"I'll see you later!" He called out over his shoulder as he grabbed the railing of the staircase leading down to the ground.

As soon as the red haired ninja was out of sight he began running.

He hoped Sasuke wasn't there yet. He would probably want to know why Naruto was late and since Naruto was a horrible liar it wouldn't take a genius to figure the real reason out.

Damn it, why couldn't he just keep his mouth shut?!

Now he had promised to help Gaara _again_! Sasuke would go into a complete Sharingan–frenzy if he found out!

Damn it!

What was he supposed to say?! It wasn't his fault that Gaara had picked him out! I mean, if you think about it, who in their right state of mind would refuse to help Sabaku no Gaara when asked/told to?

Naruto didn't have a death wish.

Though he was sure Sasuke would take care of that if he found out about their little conversation just now.

He reached the barbeque restaurant and stopped outside to catch his breath. If Sasuke was in there, he didn't want it to look as if he had been in a hurry, whatever the reason Sasuke thought it was for.

He wasn't going to let the bastard have the pleasure of seeing him make a fuss over meeting him.

Once he had his breath under control he opened the door and walked inside, quickly scanning the room in search for that familiar duck-but hairstyle that he had come to love so much.

What he found however, was a completely different hairstyle, a broody facial expression and a glare so harsh that it could have repelled an entire army.

Suddenly all thoughts of Sasuke was forgotten and a mischievous grin spread across the blonde's face when he saw the convulsive shaking going on with the other boy's left leg.

_He dreams about me._

If possible, the grin grew even wider when he casually strolled over to the table where the other was sitting, fully occupied with spearing his grilled food on one of his hashi-sticks, seemingly unaware of the world around him.

Naruto felt like messing with someone, and at the moment, Hyuuga Neji was just too tempting of a target to pass up on…

---------------------

Naruto and Sasuke walked out of the Hokage's office, closing the door silently behind them.

Just as Sasuke had said, the mission was just a C-ranked one, a childishly ridiculous one as a matter of fact.

They were supposed to help out at the local bathhouse with cleaning out the hot springs.

Luckily for them they didn't have to get wet since they could walk on water, but still, it was a drag ass boring mission… And it would take time as well… probably all day. How was he supposed to meet up with Gaara?

He still hadn't thought of anything useful to the redhead's problem. The only thing he had gotten out from their little chat earlier was an opportunity to mess with Neji, who by the way hadn't shown any extreme signs of embarrassment except for when Naruto had pointed out that his leg was shaking.

Naruto sighed. This just didn't seem to be one of his days…

Sasuke threw him a glance and stopped.

"What's the matter?" he sighed and rolled his eyes to the ceiling, making it sound as if he asked out of annoyance then that he actually cared.

"Nothing."

"Tch."

Before Naruto could even suspect what was going to happen, Sasuke grabbed him by the shoulder and pushed him up against the wall. Not hard, but still far from gentle.

"Don't try to hide things from me, Dobe."

He leaned closer and breathed hot ear on the shell of the blonde's ear and smirked when he felt the other boy give a slight quiver.

"You know I'll find out anyway…"

"I'm not hiding anything."

"Is that so?"

He brushed his lips slowly over the lobe of the ear and then flicked it with his tongue before moving down to suck at the blonde's neck.

"Nnh…Sasuke…"

"You've been sighing and slouching all morning. And don't try to tell me that it's just because of the mission, because you started long before we got here."

Naruto's breath hitched when Sasuke suddenly bit down on the soft skin, leaving a mark that surely would bruise up later, and then kissed it leisurely, almost gently.

"Did something happen?" he asked.

"N-no…"

Naruto felt Sasuke's hand sneak its way underneath his shirt and up towards his nipple and he gasped loudly when to fingers pinched the bud hard and then moaned when they began fondling it slowly.

He knew that Sasuke was interrogating him and that the physical abuse was just a distraction to make Naruto less observant to what he was saying, but god, he was good at it…

He grabbed the arm that was shoved underneath his shirt and made an attempt to pull it away, but Sasuke only pushed his body closer, pinning him to the wall, preventing him from getting away.

"There's something you're not telling me, Naruto…"

One of the raven's legs found its way between the blonde's, moving upwards, not touching, but threateningly close.

Naruto swallowed hard and did a brave attempt to hold his voice steady.

"Nothing happened, and there's nothing I'm not telling you. Now get off me you pervert, or this is the closest to me you'll get in a very long ti-aah!!"

Sasuke's knee had moved up, moving in steady, agonising slow circles against Naruto's groin, and he smirked smugly when Naruto's eyes fluttered close.

"What was that, Naruto? I didn't catch that last part."

"Y-you sick, ah, b-bastard…" He attempted a glare at his boyfriend, but found that concentrating on his face was particularly hard when his eyelids fought to stay close with every intoxicating brush from that knee.

He was shaking now and his breath had gone from shivering to panting. Damn it, why did Sasuke have to be so good at finding the right spots?

He had barely finished the thought when he felt the other's lips once again attach to his neck, kissing, nipping and biting all at once while the fingers underneath his shirt scratched the nails against his skin.

"Tell me…Naruto…"

The Uchiha's breath tickled his skin in the most maddening of ways and he clenched his teeth shut to keep from groaning loudly. He couldn't take this, why, oh why did Gaara have to put him in this situation…. Why did Sasuke have to be such a damn pervert!?

A new shiver travelled through his body when Sasuke's body shifted and… _oh shit_…

He heard and felt the zipper to his pants get pulled down and then Sasuke slipped his hand I through the opening, grabbing his by now hard member, still with that same insanely sexy smirk on his lips. Naruto tried to wiggle away but there was no use.

"Sah-… No, n-not here…"

Sasuke ignored his protest by beginning to move the tip of his fingers up and down the length, putting pressure on it.

"Why not? I think here is just fine…"

He licked Naruto's jaw line slowly, moving from the point of the chin up to the chipped lips and licked them.

"For fuck sakes, Sasuke…" Naruto breathed out with a sharp gasp. "S-someone might catch uh-… aah…"

As if on cue, there was the sound of footsteps approaching from behind the round wall of the Hokage-tower.

Sasuke growled something inaudible that Naruto suspected wasn't an expression of gratitude and reluctantly moved away, almost pushing himself off the wall.

Naruto quickly reached down and re-zipped his pants, silently thanking himself for his baggy jumpsuit and whoever it was that that was heading towards them for their sense of timing.

He leaned off of the wall and began walking forward, as if the unwilling detour to the wall never happened and Sasuke decided to follow his example the same moment as Shizune walked into view.

She passed them with a slight nod and a smile and then continued in the direction of Tsunade's office.

Naruto breathed out when she disappeared behind the curved wall but immediately tensed up when he felt Sasuke's hand sneak itself around his waist.

He grabbed it, but then he got another idea.

Sasuke had a libido with a harassment-threshold so low, not even an ant would be able to trip on it, and if it was molestation he wanted, then Naruto wouldn't be the one to deny him.

He turned towards the raven and slid his arms around his neck and then planted a fierce, passionate kiss on the other's lips, while running his fingers through and tugging at the black hair. Pushing himself forwards slightly he couldn't help but to smirk a little when he felt the bulge rub against his hip.

Oh yeah, Sasuke liked molestation.

_All_ kinds of molestation.

He slid his tongue inside Sasuke's mouth and pushed his hip harder against the tautness below his waistline. Sasuke moaned loudly and broke the kiss as he leaned his head back, his eyes clamping shut.

Naruto took the opportunity to attack his neck and made a slow, unhurried lick from the base to just below the ear before he went on to nip at the shell of it.

"Ne, Sasuke?" he whispered lusciously.

"Mhm..?" Sasuke still had his eyes closed, so he couldn't see the smirk that covered the blonde's lips.

"How about you and I meet up at the hot springs in about half an hour?"

"But where not supposed to be there until… ng… three o'clock…ah…"

"I know… but I'm sure they wont mind if were there a bit earlier, don't you think? Besides…" He let one of the hands that were wrapped around his boyfriend's neck slide down across the other's chest and cup the clothed erection lightly. "The springs will be empty, if you catch my drift…"

Sasuke took a deep breath, trying to regain a bit of his self control.

"Half an hour?" he asked languidly.

"Yeah… I promise it'll be worth the wait…" Naruto did a massaging movement with his hand and Sasuke groaned again and tried to thrust against it, but the blonde just moved it away.

"Half an hour then," he chirped and gave Sasuke a quick kiss on the lips before he turned and ran for the exit.

"Don't be late, Teme!"

It took Sasuke about twenty seconds after the blonde had disappeared out of eyesight to realize that he had been decoyed and he turned around and slammed his head against the wall with a groan.

Curse his lack of self-restraint!

-----------------

Naruto sprinted down the stairs to the Hokage-tower and felt a gush of relief when he didn't hear any sounds that indicated that Sasuke was following him.

He leaped off the final step and headed towards his apartment.

He didn't know where Gaara was, but he was sure that the san-ninja would come looking for him there.

"Naruto."

"AARH!"

He almost tripped himself and swirled around.

"_Gaara_!"

"What?"

"Stop. Doing. That!"

"Why?"

"It freaks me out, that's why!"

"Did you think of anything yet?"

Straight to business, why wasn't he surprised?

"I didn't really have the time..." He grumbled. He looked up and met a harsh look from Gaara.

"But, eh… What is it that you want, with him… exactly?"

Gaara looked down at the ground, thinking it through. What did he want? He wasn't sure… Of course he knew what he felt like, but he didn't know how to explain it without making it sound stupid or mushy.

"I want him to stop running from me."

"Oh… Only that?"

The glare again.

"Okay, I get it, for starters right?"

"For starters." Gaara repeated.

"All right…"

Naruto sighed and leaned his back against a nearby wall and folded his arms across his chest, mimicking the posture of the boy in front of him.

"Well… then I guess the next step is to actually talk to him."

"Talk?" Gaara raised a brow.

"Yeah. Or to pounce him, tie him up and then talk if you'd prefer that."

A hint of a smile crossed Gaara's lips, but he shook it off quickly. The thought of a tied up Hyuuga was tempting, but he doubted that his self-control would let him stay at just talking if he followed that example.

"You want me to _talk_ to him?" he asked, still with the brow raised.

"Yeah." Naruto noticed the mordacious tone and looked up. "Is that a problem?"

Gaara made a frustrated sigh and shut his eyes.

"In case you haven't noticed, I'm not that accustomed to conversations."

Naruto felt a slight sting of surprise. So he admitted it himself?

"You…" he hesitated, wondering for a split second if he was wandering into forbidden territory.

"Are you afraid of talking?" he asked.

Gaara looked up at him, but instead of the glare Naruto had been expecting there was a faint glint of surprise in those jade green eyes.

"Afraid?"

"You know… Like… When you're in a room full of strangers and you just keep your mouth shut because you're afraid you might say something stupid?"

Naruto knew he wasn't really the person to give that kind of example, but he knew the feeling. He just never kept his mouth shut like his mind told him to.

Gaara knew the feeling to and he had learned early on, that almost every question could be answered with a movement of the head or a shift in the posture. Not that people talked to him in the first place, but on the rare occasions when it happened.

He _did _keep his mouth shut.

Maybe he was afraid. Or maybe he just didn't like talking. Or maybe a mix of them both.

He didn't have the time to answer, before Naruto gave him a big smile.

"Then I'll help you." He declared cheerfully.

"Help me?"

Naruto pointed a thumb to his chest.

"You can practice on me."

"Practice?"

"Yeah! Look here!"

He did a couple of hand seals and there was a loud puff of smoke and then a perfect replica of Neji stood on the spot the blonde had been seconds ago.

Gaara blinked.

"So? How do I look?"

Gaara's heart jumped. Even the voice was the same.

Naruto took his silence as a yes and leaned down so that his head was in the same height as Gaara's.

"What do you want to say?" he asked with a faint smirk.

Gaara couldn't answer.

It was too hard to imagine that those silver-lilac eyes that were looking at him didn't belong to the real Neji and he felt his mouth go dry.

Telling him how he felt? Not some threat or harsh comment? How he _felt_?

He swallowed and opened his mouth in an attempt to say _something_, but couldn't bring forth as much as a sound.

Naruto leaned back against the wall again, folding his arms over the chest and looked at him.

"I'm all ears."

What did he feel? It was more then interest. More then just liking. But was it love? Could he really call it that? And where was he supposed to start? What did others say in such a situation? Did he really have to tell him everything? Or should he keep it to a minimum so that he didn't scare him away? Of course he would scare him away. Everybody was afraid of him. If he said something like that the Hyuuga would only think he had gone crazy. And this wasn't even the real Neji. He couldn't say those things to someone else, look-alike or not. It wasn't right, it didn't feel right. It wasn't the same.

"No."

"Huh?" An almost comical expression spread over Neji's face.

"You're not him."

"Oh…"

Naruto quickly turned back to his own self and looked down sheepishly at his shoes.

"Sorry… I didn't think about that."

"It's all right"

Naruto looked up and grinned.

"See, you're making progress already. You actually answered instead of just shrugging."

Gaara blinked and then looked away.

"I'm really that hopeless, aren't I?"

Naruto smiled.

Sadness, another emotion breaking through that stubborn shell of his.

He shook his head.

"Not at all. You just need to practice."

Gaara snorted.

Practice. What was he supposed to do, walk around and start random conversations with people he didn't know?

Naruto seemed to follow his line of thoughts and smiled again.

"All right, lets do it like this then. You go home, and then you stand in front of the mirror and you practice with yourself."

"I'm supposed to talk to myself?"

An image of that scenario played in the redhead's mind and he looked at the blonde doubtingly.

"Yeah. I know, it sounds weird and stupid, but it works." He shrugged. "I talk to myself all the time."

"Why are you doing this?"

"Huh?"

That was a weird question. What did that have to do with mirror practice?

"Doing what?" he asked stupefied.

"Why are you helping me?"

"Why? Eh… I guess… You… You are my friend. Friends help each other out."

Gaara scowled at the word 'friend'.

Only months ago he had tried to kill the blonde. How could he call him a friend so easily?

"You're not afraid of me?" he asked and turned towards Naruto who grinned at the question.

"Well… You can be kind of scary sometimes… but no. I'm not afraid of you." He grinned wider. "I kicked your ass once; I can always do it again."

Gaara looked at him and Naruto could have sworn that he saw the boy give a faint smile before he turned away again.

"Don't worry, we'll fix this." Naruto placed a hand on the other's shoulder and Gaara twitched slightly at the sudden touch. Naruto frowned.

"But we'll have to do something about that though. You can't be doing that every time someone touches you." An evil grin formed on his lips. "If Neji actually sleeps with you again, you'll go into a convulsive seizure."

Gaara gave him a glare.

"Shut up."

----------------

Neji walked out of the barbeque restaurant. His mood hadn't changed much since Naruto and Sasuke had left earlier and he still had the look of a broody thunderstorm on his face.

He needed something else to think about. Something far away from redheads and sand.

Come to think of it, he hadn't had a single mission during all this time. Things had been slow on that front lately, for everyone. The only missions available where C-missions, and to be honest, Neji's team where a bit over-qualified to be handed those.

Still… right now he felt like taking anything. Anything at all.

With a sigh he turned around and began walking towards the Hokage office. Maybe Tsunade hadn't handed out everything yet. There might be something left for him.

On the way his thoughts inevitably wandered off, ending at the look in Gaara's eyes when he had pushed the boy of him in the alley. What was up with that look anyway?

He had only seen it for a split second before he had walked away, but the image was stuck inside his mind as if it had been imprinted on the back of his eyelids.

He had looked… hurt. Surprised at first and then… they had clouded over in a way that made Neji feel like a complete asshole. And he shouldn't have to feel like that, damn it!

It was Gaara who had started it all by pushing him up the wall and molesting him!

Why should he feel guilty about defending himself?

He was so deep in his own thought that he almost had a minor heart attack when a loud yell cut through the silence.

"AARH!"

Neji stopped dead in the alley he was heading through. The voice was coming from around the corner in front of him.

"Gaara!"

"What?"

Neji stiffened.

He knew those voices.

But… Why was _he_ talking to Naruto?

"Stop. Doing. That!"

"Why?"

"It freaks me out, that's why!"

"Did you think of anything yet?"

He moved a bit closer as the voices grew more silent. Apparently Gaara had scared Naruto and now the blonde was going back to a normal volume again. Or as normal as the loudmouth could get.

"I didn't really have the time..." he heard the blonde answer but then he hurriedly added;

"But, eh… What is it that you want, with him… exactly?"

There was silence. Neji didn't move. What was going on here? Who were they talking about?

His eyes widened. It couldn't be…

After a while he heard Gaara's deep voice again.

"I want him to stop running from me."

"Oh… Only that?"

More silence and Neji assumed that it was caused of a glare from Gaara. He knew that technique, he had used it himself a couple of times.

"Okay, I get it, for starters right?"

"For starters." Gaara repeated silently.

They were talking about him. There wasn't a doubt of it.

"All right…"

Naruto sighed.

Neji activated his byakugan, making sure he did it as slowly and discreetly as possible. If he was going to eavesdrop he didn't want a sudden burst of chakra from him to reveal that he was there.

And yes, he considered himself to have the full right to eavesdrop on them. They were talking about him after all.

He focused his eyes beyond the wall and saw Naruto lean his back against it with arms folded across his chest.

Gaara was standing in front of the blonde, facing Neji and if Neji didn't know any better, it looked as the redhead was looking straight at him.

"Well… then I guess the next step is to actually talk to him."

"Talk?" Neji saw Gaara raise a brow.

"Yeah." Naruto shrugged. "Or to pounce him, tie him up and then talk if you'd prefer that."

Neji huffed. Pounce and tie up? Who the hell did they think he was?

"You want me to _talk_ to him?"

The sarcasm in Gaara's voice was unmistakable and Neji held back a snort.

Of course the bastard wouldn't want to talk. He was a fucking perverted _rapist_, why would he want to _talk_?

"Yeah." Naruto looked up. "Is that a problem?"

Gaara made a frustrated sigh and closed his eyes.

"In case you haven't noticed, I'm not that accustomed to conversations."

Not accustomed? Incapable would be more fitting.

"You…" There was hesitation in the blonde's voice and Neji saw him tilt his head slightly to the side and eye the red head carefully. "Are you afraid of talking?

Neji almost gasped when the blonde said the question. Was he a complete idiot?! He was as good as dead now; Gaara would rip him into pieces!

He was ready to leave his hiding to actually rescue the blonde from his approaching death when Gaara spoke, but the tone wasn't the growling one he had expected. It almost sounded surprised.

"Afraid?"

"You know… Like… When you're in a room full of strangers and you just keep your mouth shut because you're afraid you might say something stupid?"

What the hell was happening here?!

There they where, his rapist and Naruto, talking as if they were the best of buddies, throwing personal questions all over the place!

Why were they talking in the first place?! And why the hell were they talking about _him_?!

He didn't hear that Gaara answered anything, but then Naruto's voice broke the silence.

"Then I'll help you."

"Help me?"

Naruto pointed a thumb to his chest.

"You can practice on me."

"Practice?"

Gaara looked as if didn't have a clue what the moron was talking about.

"Yeah! Look here!"

There was a puff of smoke and then a clone of Neji stood on the spot said moron had been at seconds ago.

Neji blinked.

"So? How do I look?"

Neji blinked again. Even the voice was the same. The blonde's transformation sure had improved. Not even Neji would be able to tell the difference between himself and the copy on the other side of the wall.

Neji watched himself lean down so that his head was in the same height as Gaara's, almost as if Naruto was going to kiss him. He felt his stomach tighten.

"What do you want to say?"

Say? Why would the maniac want to say anything to him?

Gaara didn't answer.

Neji saw him open his mouth as if he was about to say something but nothing came out.

He scowled deeper.

Gaara didn't seem like a person who would go speechless just because of having someone leaning in on him, and once again Neji marvelled over the fact that the blonde was still alive.

Naruto leaned back against the wall again, folding his arms over the chest.

"I'm all ears."

And that blonde by the way. How _dared_ he walk around and transform into Neji like that?! If Gaara didn't kill him, Neji sure would as soon as he got his hands on him.

"No."

"Huh?" An almost comical expression spread over the copy's face and behind the wall Neji had the same one on his.

"You're not him."

What difference did it make? If it was speech-practice then the opponent shouldn't matter.

But then… why had Naruto transformed into Neji of all people? He could as well have stayed as himself.

What kind of speech-practice was this?

"Oh…"

Naruto quickly turned back to his own self and looked down sheepishly at his shoes.

"Sorry… I didn't think about that."

"It's all right"

"See, you're making progress already. You actually answered instead of just shrugging."

Neji watched the sand-ninja blink and then look away.

"I'm really that hopeless, aren't I?"

He had those eyes again. As if all hope had just abandoned him and left him on his own. Neji's stomach tightened harder.

"Not at all. You just need to practice."

Gaara snorted, but Naruto just waved it off.

"All right, lets do it like this then. You go home, and then you stand in front of the mirror and you practice with yourself."

"I'm supposed to talk to myself?"

Neji didn't know if he was supposed to laugh or snort at that advice. Trust Naruto to come up with such an idea.

"Yeah. I know, it sounds weird and stupid, but it works." The blonde shrugged. "I talk to myself all the time."

"Why are you doing this?"

"Huh? Doing what?"

"Why are you helping me?"

Helping?

"Why? Eh… I guess… You… You are my friend. Friends help each other out."

"You're not afraid of me?" he asked and turned towards Naruto.

"Well… You can be kind of scary sometimes… but no. I'm not afraid of you." Neji heard the grin in the moron's voice. "I kicked your ass once; I can always do it again."

_And ended up at the hospital for a couple of weeks_, Neji added silently to himself.

"Don't worry, we'll fix this." Naruto placed a hand on the other's shoulder and Gaara twitched slightly at the sudden touch.

"But we'll have to do something about that though. You can't be doing that every time someone touches you." There was a short pause as the blonde let go and leaned back against the wall.

"If Neji actually sleeps with you again, you'll go into a convulsive seizure."

Neji almost choked.

The blonde knew!

_Sleeps with you _again.

He blinked and then the full implication on what that sentence meant crashed down on him.

He had known all along! That time at Sasuke's… He had _known_! He had _known_ and still he had just _sat_ there and _grinned_ and made Neji make a complete _fool_ of himself! The bastard had _known_!

"Shut up."

Neji's attention snapped back when Gaara spoke. There it was; the tone he had been waiting for. Low, almost like a growl.

"What?" Naruto sounded dumbfounded.

"It's not about that."

"Not about what?"

"Sleeping with him. It's not about that."

Neji was lost. _Not_ about sleeping with him?

"But… I thought… I mean, you pounced him, right?"

"I did that because you told me to. I asked you for help remember?"

Neji felt as if he had just been kicked in the chest.

Asked him for help!?

_I did that because you told me to._

Then… His eyes aimed at the blonde who was standing with his back against him.

This was _his_ fault!

_Everything_ was _his_ fault!

His fists clenched at his sides. There were no words to describe the feeling he held against the blonde at that moment. When he got to lay his hands on him, he wouldn't even bother to use any jutsus. He would simply strangle him, slowly, and he would enjoy every single moment of it!

"I know. But hey, he kissed you right? That means it must have worked somewhat."

Screw strangling. Burning alive sounded better.

"Yes. But he still pushed me away…"

Neji looked up and groaned.

Gaara was glancing down at the ground and his posture had faltered somewhat. Neji couldn't see his eyes, but he didn't have to, he knew what they looked like.

Damn it, why did he have to feel so guilty about that!?

Naruto, for once, didn't say anything. He kicked aimlessly at the ground in front of him.

Neji didn't move. The small amount of guilt he had felt for pushing the other boy of him and leave like that had suddenly grown in a heartbreaking rate, and now it was suffocating him from inside.

He should have figured it out. Damn it, why hadn't he figured it out!

All the harsh things and insults he had said to the other boy played through his head and for each time they repeated, they sounded more cruel and malicious.

Damn it.

"You really like him don't you?"

Naruto's voice was low and he still looked down at the ground.

Silence.

Neji caught himself holding his own breath and let it out slowly.

"Yes."

Then Naruto straightened up from the wall and walked over to Gaara and laid an arm over his shoulders, ignoring the fact that the other boy tensed up at the close contact.

"Don't worry. He came on to you at the party, he'll do it again. Just give it some time."

The blonde looked up at the sky and let go of the other boy.

"I have to go. I'm supposed to be at the hot springs for a mission with Sasuke in a couple of minutes."

He gave the red haired boy an encouraging smile.

"Be patient." He said and then he left with a small wave.

Gaara stood still and watched him leave and then he also turned around and walked off in the other direction.

Neji waited until both ninja's were out of sight until he deactivated his Byakugan and leaned heavily against the wall behind him.

Of all the things that conversation had changed for him, one thing had suddenly left a cold, icy feeling in the pit of his stomach.

_He came on to you at the party, he'll do it again._

**He** _came on to_ **you** _at the party._

* * *

**One word, people; S-E-L-F-C-O-N-C-I-O-U-S-N-E-S-S!!**


	9. Taking Care of Business

**Taking Care of Business**

Neji's mind had gone numb.

Bits and pieces of the conversation he had just overheard were tumbling around inside his head like a vortex, broken fragments of words and sentences mixed with the image of a pair of scared and painfilled, green eyes.

He didn't know where he was going; neither could he have cared less.

People looked at him as he passed by, but he didn't notice.

There was an ache inside his chest, a painful throbbing that seemed to pulse through his entire body. Every heartbeat sent a new bolt of numbness out into his system, every breath made his chest clench and tighten harder around his lungs, making it harder to breath, to keep breathing.

He felt empty. Hollow. Dead.

Suddenly everything had made sense to him.

The reason to why Gaara had been following him around.

The boy must have thought that he was avoiding him out of denial or whatever, acting as if nothing had happened and then gone to Naruto for advice.

Naruto shared a bond with the red haired boy, a bond that probably stretched further then any other in this village could possibly understand. Of course Naruto would be the only one he could confide with such a thing.

_I wa__nt him to stop running from me._

He gritted his teeth.

He had been so stupid!

There was so much truth in those words. Running, that's exactly what he had been doing. Running away, like a hare when faced with a predator.

How could he possibly claim himself to be a ninja after doing such a thing?

How could he even call himself a man?

_You stay the fuck away from me!_

His own words echoed in his head, harsh and cold.

If only he had known…

_You're not him._

_You really like him don't you?_

_Yes._

It had mattered so much to him. It had to be Neji.

_You really like him don't you?_

He really liked him…

What was he supposed to do?

Should he continue avoiding the sand-ninja and act like nothing?

Or should he confront him and tell him like it was?

That everything had been a huge misunderstanding.

_If Neji actually sleeps with you again__…_

Again… How could one single word change so much…? He couldn't understand it.

He had slept with Gaara at Ino's party; there was no use in trying to pretend he had not anymore.

What disturbed him was the fact that it obviously was he himself who had taken the initiative.

He had been drunk, he suspected, to the point of unconsciousness, but it still didn't make any sense. He was male! They both were! Drunk or not, why would he go ahead and flirt with another man if he was straight?

He stopped, not caring that he was in the middle of the street and stared blankly down at his own shoes.

Exactly. Why would he do that?

If he was _straigh_t?

He groaned and resisted the urge to pull his hair.

Not that too, not now, not like this.

He didn't have the strength to deal with that thought on top of it all.

Still, against his will, his mind continued down that same lane, and the further it went, the less he liked what he found.

He had never cared about sex. He had never cared about girls at all.

He had a very cute, very sweet girl in his own team, but he had never even as much as looked at her. And why would he? Tenten had always been like a sister to him. Looking at her like that would be the same as looking at Hinata for Christ's sake!

But that wasn't the only thing. He had never looked at anyone like that.

Not once.

On the other hand…

The training session he had had with Sasuke in that alley less then a week ago popped up into his head.

Not moving, not showing any signs what so ever that he was affected by the other boy standing so close to him, breathing into his ear, locking him against the wall with his own body.

It had been hard. A bit too hard then what it should have been.

The image changed and Sasuke was suddenly replaced with Gaara.

Gaara, with his tongue running along the nape of his neck, his hands underneath his shirt, sliding down, moving against him, lips against lips, a startled moan sent its vibrations through his body...

He cut himself off.

Damn it!

Damn it, damn it, damn it, _damn it_!

_He still pushed me away…_

He knew the answer now. Just as clear as he had known it then, only now he didn't try to convince himself otherwise.

The reason why he had pushed the other away so suddenly wasn't because had disliked what was going to happen.

It was because he had liked it to much.

To much then what was allowed, to much then what he was supposed to in such a situation.

He had told himself that it was just hormones, his body acting without his consent and that the dreams that had followed only was his brain trying to process what had happened.

_I'm going to make you scream my name, Hyuuga…_

Neji sighed and dragged his hand over his eyes.

"Every night…"

_I scream __your name every night…_

"Fuck."

For the first time in his entire life, Neji felt like getting drunk and he cursed whoever it was that had come up with the idea of establishing age limit regulations for alcohol-consumption.

He groaned and glared at the sky.

It had that insulting, clear blue colour again and even the blazing, golden sun that shone down on him seemed to be mocking his predicament.

He frowned at its imprudence and cracked his knuckles with an ominous sound.

Someone was going to take responsibility for this mess, and he knew exactly who.

-------------------

Naruto unlocked the door to his apartment and walked inside.

"I'm home!"

He called out the usual greeting to the apartment and walked into his living room.

"Welcome back."

"BAH!"

Naruto stumbled backwards and tripped over a trashcan and fell into a heap on the floor.

He stared at the person sitting on his couch and raised an accusing finger at the smirking individual.

"W-what the hell are you doing in my apartment?! How the fuck did you get in?!"

Neji shrugged.

"The door was unlocked."

Naruto stared down at the key he still held in his hand and then at the door.

"I locked it when I went in." Neji said explaining.

"Oh…" Naruto stood up from the floor and dusted of his clothes, in a fatal attempt to regain some of his lost dignity. "What do you want?" he asked, not too politely as he looked suspiciously at the brunette lounging on the soft cushions.

Again, his question was answered with a nonchalant shrug.

"Just felt like dropping by." Neji's eyes locked with Naruto's. "Got a problem with that?"

"No."

Naruto resolutely turned around and walked over to the kitchenette at the other side of the room.

If the bastard wanted to hang around that much, Naruto wasn't going to stop him. Not that he was going to be some stupid host fawning and waiting on him either.

"So, how are you and Sasuke doing?"

Naruto shrugged, using the other's method against him.

"Good." He said shortly.

"Thinking about coming out yet?"

"We haven't really talked about that."

"I see. The Uchiha's guarding his reputation?"

Naruto snorted out a laughter.

"Not really. He pounced me at the Hokage's tower today. If I had let him the bastard would have wanted to get it on right there in the hallway."

"I see."

Naruto couldn't see Neji's face, but he heard the snicker in his voice.

"Then is it you?"

This time Naruto laughed out loud, a hint of bitterness clouding his voice.

"Me? My reputation wouldn't take any damage from such a thing. Damn, this is something people would be expecting of me!"

He jumped up to sit at the kitchen counter, facing Neji.

"Actually, it's more of getting used to it ourselves. We've hardly been together for a month yet, you know."

He sent a glower at Neji, expecting some kind of retort, but the other just nodded.

"Suddenly realising you're gay must be an overthrowing experience, I'm sure."

Naruto blushed a little at the blunt expression. The word 'gay' wasn't something he had expected to hear coming from the Hyuuga's lips.

Neji looked at him and suddenly Naruto felt slightly uncomfortable.

It was almost the same kind of look Sasuke used to give him when he knew something Naruto didn't and was planning to use it against him.

He quickly jumped of the counter and turned his back against the other boy and opened up a cabinet, reaching out for a cup of instant-ramen.

He could feel the other's gaze against his back, like a pair of drills boring their way through his body and he half expected to see a pair of gaping holes in his chest when he glanced down.

"Spoken to Gaara much lately?"

Naruto almost dropped the cup, but somehow managed to keep his grip around it.

"What?" he said, trying to hold his voice steady.

"Gaara. You know, kind of short. Red hair, green eyes, kanji on his forehead."

"Why would I be talking to him?"

"I thought the two of you were friends."

"Well… we're more like acquaintances actually." Naruto said quickly. "He talks to me sometimes, but I think that's because he gets lonely." He laughed nervously and continued in a rambling voice while fidgeting with the ramen-cup;

"I guess he thinks I understand him since I was able to beat him after the chuunin-exams. I don't care that much, he can talk to me if he wants to. But I wouldn't want to go as far as to call us _fr_i_ends_."

His voice pitched in a nervous shriek at the last word.

He had turned around only to find that Neji had left the couch and was now standing right behind him. He took a startled step back and bumped into the counter so hard the shelf above it shook.

"Really?"

Neji's voice was deceivingly soft.

"Y-yeah! Heh…he…" Naruto's false grin faded underneath the cold look he received from the silvery eyes.

Neji wasn't smiling anymore.

"So that little conversation you had earlier today was just a coincidence then?"

Naruto gulped and nodded.

The second after that he found himself hauled of his feet by the front of his jacket with Neji's face barely an inch from his own with the now byakugan-activated eyes flashing furiously at him.

"You pathetic little liar." He hissed, gritting his teeth at the blonde hanging as if paralysed in his grip.

"W-wait, Neji! I-I can explain!"

"Does it look like I give a damn about your explanations?"

The Hyuuga slowly raised the arm that was not occupied with holding on to Naruto's jumpsuit and closed his hand into what looked like a very hard fist, shrouded in raging blue chakra that seemed strong enough to scorch the very air in the room they were in.

"You better start saying your prayers, backstabber …"

Naruto clenched his eyes shut and braced himself for the horrible pain that would soon erupt through his jaw and explode inside his head, probably splitting his brain in half.

"_Erh-erhm_."

At the sound of the voice he carefully peeked an eye open and looked over Neji's shoulder and let out a relieved sigh.

Sasuke was casually leaning against the doorframe to the living room-slash-kitchen with his arms folded across his chest and with his right eyebrow raised in an elegant curve.

"May I ask what you think you're doing with my boyfriend?"

Neji snorted.

"This has nothing to do with you, Uchiha."

"Since you're about to beat up my best friend and lover, I believe it is actually."

Sasuke leaned off the doorpost and walked up to them, though he made sure that he was still out of arms reach from Neji.

"Sasuke, get him off me!"

"Shut up!" Neji's attention was returned to the now squirming blonde and the chakra surging from his hand flared up dangerously.

"Hey, hey, calm down!" Sasuke glared at them. "Would someone like to tell me what the hell is going on here?"

"I told you that it's none of your business, Uchiha."

"And _I'm_ telling _you_ that it is,_ Hyuuga_."

Naruto stared anxiously at the two stoic teens with a slight tightness in his stomach. As much as he would like to get out of this pesty situation he was in, he didn't want them to start a fight inside his home.

The prospects of getting a chidori-made hole in his living-room wall wasn't something he looked forward to.

Sasuke seemed to be of the same opinion so when Neji didn't show any signs of backing down he sighed and threw his arms out in an uncaring gesture.

"Fine. Do what you want with the dobe, but as soon as you take a step out that door I'll be all over your ass, Hyuuga."

"Sasuke!" Naruto stared at the Uchiha. Was he just going to stand there and let Neji turn his face into minced meat?!

An evil smirk graced across Neji's lips.

"Wouldn't that be considered as infidelity?"

Sasuke didn't let himself get affected by the comment and gestured towards Naruto with a tilt of the head.

"Not if he's dead." He retorted, ignoring the choking sound coming from Naruto. "Then on the other hand, you'll have every single ANBU-squad in Konoha after you as well so I guess I'll have to share."

Neji's eye twitched at the last statement, but didn't make a comeback.¨

"So what's it gonna be?" Sasuke leisurely placed a hand at his kunai-pouch and looked at the other raven patiently.

Neji glared at him for a long time and then turned towards Naruto, who was secretly whispering prayers inside his head to whatever God that was supposed to watch over blonde, over-energetic fools who just couldn't keep their mouth's shut.

"You got lucky." He growled and shoved the blonde back onto the floor.

Naruto quickly retreated to a point behind Sasuke, making sure the other was strategically placed between himself and the raging Hyuuga.

"Glad we could sort that out." Sasuke sighed. "Now, if you would kindly explain what this childish outburst was all about?"

"You should ask him." Neji glared at Naruto who cowered slightly behind Sasuke.

Sasuke glanced back at the blonde.

"Naruto?" he asked, not bothering trying to hide the glint of steel in his voice.

"Eh… well…"

Suddenly Naruto realised that his situation, whether it was possible or not, had drastically gone from bad to worse.

Not only did Neji look like he was itching to strangle him at any given second, but if he told the truth, Sasuke would surely be glad to accompany said other teen in the slaughter that would most certainly follow.

And since Neji obviously seemed to know the truth already, he couldn't lie either, because then Neji would just tell Sasuke and he would get slaughtered anyway.

He winced and looked at Sasuke, hoping to find some sign of refuge there, but the only thing he received back was a cold, blank look from a pair of onyx eyes.

Wincing again he silently cursed his run-amuck tongue and he mournfully wondered if they had ramen in heaven.

Then he took one deep breath, thinking that if he was going to die, he might as well get it over with as soon as possible…

-------------------

"You what?"

Sasuke's voice was low, steady and oh, so horribly lethal. Naruto imagined how it cut through the air like a million razorblades as the sound waves from it travelled through the air to eventually reach his ears, continuing into his ear channel, slicing its insides to pieces.

It was not pleasant.

"Heh, I know, it was stupid and all… but c'mon, he just wanted help. What was I supposed to do?"

"How about keeping your nose out of other people's business?"

Neji had gone over to lean against the kitchen counter, watching in increasing delight how Sasuke's fists had begun to clench harder and tighter the further the blonde had gone with his story. Now he was looking at Naruto with an evil, smug grin, knowing that whatever revenge he had planned out for the blonde from the beginning, nothing could ever had topped this.

Naruto glared back at him.

"Oh, shut up! You weren't exactly that brave when you first met him either."

Neji's eyes darkened considerably and Naruto took a step back.

"Naruto…"

Naruto gulped and turned towards Sasuke.

"Eh…what?"

"You're saying that you knew the truth even before Neji came to my house that day and asked for help."

It wasn't a question, but Naruto nodded anyway. Sasuke took a deep, shivering breath.

"Good."

The raven raised his head and revealed a set of glowering, crimson eyes.

"Then I won't have to worry about feeling guilty when I beat you up."

"Wha-! W-wait a minute! Sasuke!"

Neji snickered and stood up from the counter.

It seemed as if he wouldn't have to do any labour in the situation after all. Even though it would have felt good to give the blonde at least one punch in the face, he suspected that Sasuke would do a much better job.

"I'll leave the two of you alone then."

He walked up to the front door and threw a glance over his shoulder just in time to see Sasuke take a step forward, grab a hold of Naruto's shirt and roughly throw him down on the ground and straddle him. Naruto squeaked, a pathetic little sound that seemed more befitting a girl then a ninja.

"Sasuke! Hold on a minute!"

"Shut up!" Sasuke growled and grabbed a hold of the blonde's hair in what seemed to be a very painful manner, the Sharingan blood-trait spinning so fast it made Neji dizzy just looking at it.

Without another word Neji left the apartment, closing the door tightly after him.

As he walked down the stair to the ground below the apartment-building he hear a muffled scream coming from behind the door he had just left.

-------------------

Sasuke raised his head as he heard the front door close and looked down at the blonde wincing underneath him.

"Scream." He ordered in a low voice.

"What?"

"Scream!" He roughly pinched the other boy hard in the side causing the blonde to cry out loudly in pain.

"The fuck Sa-!"

Naruto's angry shout was silenced when Sasuke's lips roughly pressed against his and he stopped, chocked over the sudden change of attitude.

Then suddenly Sasuke got of him and silently crept up to the window, looking out at the street below behind the curtain.

"He's gone." He stood up and turned around to the baffled blonde, who was still lying sprawled on the floor, his blood-red eyes now gone.

"You're planning to stay down there all day or what?"

Naruto blinked.

"Sa-? Wha-? What just-?"

Sasuke looked at him with an amused smile.

"You really thought I was going to beat you up?"

Naruto huffed when the truth slowly dawned on him and he angrily stood up from the floor and pointed an accusing finger at the sniggering boy.

"Shut up, Teme! You scared the fuck out of me! What the hell was that?!"

Sasuke walked up to him, still smirking.

"I could always call Neji back if you'd like. Tell him I changed my mind and let him do it."

"Ha ha, very funny."

Naruto placed his hands on is hips and glared at Sasuke.

"However…"

With a rough pull Naruto once again found himself sprawled on his back onto the floor with the Uchiha-prodigy once again straddling him.

"Sasuke, what the hell are you doing?"

"You thought you were going to get away that easily, dobe?" Sasuke's hand grabbed hold of the blonde hair and pulled it so that Naruto's head tilted backwards, exposing the tanned neck for the other teen's eyes.

Sasuke leaned down and began nipping and sucking at the tender flesh, erupting a startled moan from the blonde underneath him.

"You still have a penalty to serve…"

His other hand pulled the zipper of the jumpsuit-jacket down and dived underneath the soft fabric of the black t-shirt the boy wore underneath it, clawing at the skin with blunt fingernails, making the blonde arch and gasp loudly.

"Do you know what your penalty is going to be?" the raven breathed huskily into the other's ear and let his tongue rigorously trace the rim of the ear shell.

"N-no…" Naruto breathed out, trying to suppress a new groan when the hand underneath his shirt began fondling his nipples.

Sasuke smirked at the sight and licked his lips.

"I'm putting you on a curfew."

Naruto managed to open his eyes and squinted up at his lover, trying to shut the waves of pleasure he felt from the other's ministrations out long enough to form a sentence.

"What kind... of curfew?"

Sasuke smirked.

"Let's just say I going to make sure you won't be able to leave the bed for a while…"

He brought up a knee between the other boy's legs and began moving it in a firm circle before leaning down again and breathing huskily into his captive's ear;

"A very. Long. Time…"

* * *

**Yay! Please review!**

**Next chappie – "Neji's Resolve"!**

* * *


	10. Neji's Resolve

**Neji's Resolve  
**

After leaving Naruto's apartment, Neji went straight home.

As soon as he got inside his room he resolutely walked up to the bed and flopped himself down on it with an exhausted sigh and closed his eyes.

More than anything he wanted to sleep, but he knew that would be impossible with all the thoughts running through his head at the moment.

His entire view of the world had been abruptly turned upside-down due to the conversation he had overheard that same morning and he was still trying to adapt to the new order things seemed to have placed themselves in, including his new, recently found self-perception.

He had been given time to think about it all when he had waited for Naruto to get home, and even during his almost-beating-up-the-blonde-moment, the argument with the Uchiha and the walk home, the thoughts had not left his mind for a second.

He had come to several conclusions.

First, and perhaps hardest of all to grasp, was of course the sudden realisation that he was gay.

He thought himself, that considering the circumstances he had accepted that fact pretty well.

Hyuuga Neji, the pride and prodigy of the Hyuuga clan and the best byakugan-wielder in Konoha, was gay.

He was gay.

Homosexual.

_Queer_…

…

Okay, so maybe he hadn't accepted the fact _completely_ yet, but at least he wasn't in denial!

He wasn't stupid.

Then secondly, there was the fact that Gaara was, obviously, interested in him. Even though the guy had been acting weird and even slight scary, Neji didn't need to think long to figure that one out.

In addition to that, he had found out that Gaara's behaviour during their meetings had clearly been influenced by Naruto, which in turn meant that he could not use those encounters to make a correct judgement of the boy's personality.

According to what Gaara had said to Naruto back there, it seemed as if that kind of behaviour had not been the redhead's own first choice of action.

To be honest, Neji thought that the rough, violent and hostile Gaara seemed more like a defence mechanism then an actual personality. Perhaps the real Gaara was nothing like that.

The brunet tiredly ran his hands across his face and sighed again.

He couldn't help but to feel curious about the sand ninja.

He was shrouded in mystery, a riddle in himself, rejecting, sinister, pleading and timid, a walking, talking God damn _contradiction_, and no matter how hard he tried, Neji couldn't get a clear image of him.

It was unspeakably frustrating…

And on top of it all he still felt guilty about the way he had been behaving towards him during the past near month.

How could Gaara possibly still be interested in him when Neji had treated him like some crazy nut-job in need of a throughout brain-surgery?

Like, c'mon, who would like to date a complete asshole? That's obviously what he had been acting like, even though it hurt to admit it...

He groaned.

Why couldn't he just let it go?

Why did he have to care so much about what the other boy thought of him?!

He absentmindedly toyed with a strand of his hair, twirling it in between his fingers, looking at it without seeing.

He should apologise to him.

There was no way he was going to get some peace and quiet in his mind if he didn't.

But how was he going to do that, exactly?

He had no idea of where the three sand-ninjas were staying.

Probably at a hotel, but which one?

Neji didn't feel like walking around asking for Gaara at a random all through Konoha. He was still a Hyuuga, he had his dignity.

So where was he supposed to find the redhead then?

It was always Gaara who had found him before.

He rolled around to lie on his side and stared out through the window at the end of the bed. It was still early afternoon; the sun was still standing high in the sky.

He could always…

But the chances were slim.

But he didn't really have to look.

He could just stroll around.

He was getting hungry anyway.

Getting something to eat sounded like a good idea.

Just a snack or something.

And if he happened to run into Gaara somewhere, then that would just be a well-timed coincidence.

…

Right?

-----------------

Two hours later into Neji's 'little' stroll, he found Gaara.

Or, Gaara found him…

They found each other.

At the same time.

Neji came walking down the street, throwing quick glances into every alley or side street he could find, NOT looking for anyone or anything in particular when he suddenly felt a familiar, for once welcomed, presence emerge further down the street in front of him. He looked up and met the jade green gaze, holding back a slight shiver that tried to climb its way up his spine.

Gaara had been walking around Konoha aimlessly ever since he and Naruto had split up earlier that morning; trying to think about how on earth he was going to make Neji stick around long enough for him to be able to talk to him.

The only bullet-proof way he could think of was to capture him with his sand and hold him in place while he spoke, but that would probably have more of a negative effect on the other than anything else.

He had started to give up hope on figuring anything out and decided to head back to the hotel instead. Usually he would have gone through the alleys and backstreets, but he wanted to get home as fast as possible, so he just walked out onto the main street, but stopped immediately when a motion in the corner of his eye caught his attention and he looked up, only to come face to face with two silver-lilac eyes that were staring openly at him from maybe sixty feet away.

They stood there and looked at each other for almost half a minute, seemingly not noticing the people who crossed the path in between them.

Neji hadn't really expected to find Gaara in the first place, but now that he had, he couldn't come up with anything to do or say, so he just stood there.

Gaara didn't say anything either, even though _he_ had spent the entire morning thinking about things to say and do, but now when he had been given the opportunity, the only thought that went through his head was ;_ why isn't he running away?_

Then he blinked. Did he just…?

Neji waved to him again; stretching his hand out with the palm of the hand facing up and motioned with his fingers for him to come closer.

Gaara didn't move.

Why did he want him to come closer? What was he still doing there, looking at him like _that_? Why wasn't he walking away like he used to?

Neji sighed and rolled his eyes to the sky when Gaara didn't show any signs of complying.

Why did this guy have to make things so difficult?

He motioned again, a bit more demanding this time and finally Gaara started moving, slowly and cautiously, but moving nonetheless.

Neji couldn't help but to marvel of how graceful the boy moved through the crowd, even with the gourd strapped onto his back he almost seemed to float in between the people on the street and suddenly he was standing right in front of Neji with a calm but questioning look on his face, without having broken eye contact a single time.

Neji opened his mouth to speak but then seemed to remember that they were still standing in the middle of the street. Gesturing with his head he walked into a nearby alley, Gaara following, still watching him cautiously.

Neji leaned against the wall, folded his arms across his chest and looked down at the ground.

Something about the Hyuuga's behaviour was off, but Gaara couldn't put his finger on what it was.

Or rather, there were so many things that were off, that he couldn't decide on one specific thing to blame. The look Neji had given him… If Gaara didn't know better he'd say that the brunet had been… waiting for him?

His thoughts were interrupted when Neji cleared his throat.

"How've you been?"

Neji didn't raise his head when he spoke and he still had his eyes fixed on a point just in front of his feet, but there was a tone of sincerity in his voice that made Gaara scowl slightly.

Something was, indeed, very off with this picture. The last time he had seen Neji, the other had not seemed to give a damn about his health or how he was doing in any way. This sudden chance in attitude was not only abruptly sudden, but also slightly unnerving…

Either the Hyuuga had been hit in the head with something very hard, or he had just simply lost his mind…

_Great, I__'ve made him snap…_he thought bitterly.

"Why do you care?"

He had not intended to snap it out the way he did, and felt a slight cringe inside when Neji shot him a quick glance before returning his gaze to the ground once more.

"Just thought I should ask…" came the low answer and again Gaara felt that cringe in the pit of his stomach.

_**Nice strategy, Gaara**__**. Keep that up and you'll have Him hate your guts in no time. **_

_You stay out of this, demon._ Gaara mentally hissed at the presence inside his head.

Shukaku chuckled and Gaara could sense its amusement radiating from inside his head.

_**My, my, aren't we feisty today, whelp?**_

_Go away. I don't have time for you right now._

There was a painful sting in the back of his skull and he could hear the demon mutter a less flattering parting phrase, and then its presence was gone.

He sighed.

Shukaku had been acting very reserved lately and the few times he did speak with Gaara was to deliver a sour comment on either Gaara himself or Neji, who he had come to refer to as 'Him'.

Shukaku didn't like Neji, he had made that very clear from the start, and from the looks of it he didn't plan on changing that opinion anytime soon…

If it hadn't been so completely uncharacteristic for a demon, Gaara would say that Shukaku was sulking…

Neji looked up when he heard the other boy sigh.

Gaara looked back at him and then turned his eyes away.

"Sorry." He mumbled.

Neji blinked and then looked away as well.

There was a new silence.

Out on the street people kept walking by in a steady flow, not taking any notice of the two teens standing in the alley face to face without looking at one another.

None of the two knew what to say. Or do.

Gaara still tried to figure out what the hell was going on, and Neji was frantically trying to come up with something intelligent to say that wouldn't make him sound completely ridiculous.

In the end he just leaned off the wall and stood up straight.

"Have you eaten?" he asked bluntly.

Gaara shook his head.

A corner of Neji's mouth tugged upwards.

'Not accustomed to conversations' sure hadn't been an understatement.

He made a small, inviting toss with his head out towards the street.

"I'll treat you."

There was a second silence, and for a moment Neji thought Gaara was going to say no, but after a couple of seconds the redhead shrugged.

"Fine."

-----------------

The diner was quite small and Neji had personally never been there before, but the food was known to be good and came at a reasonable price and best of all, the place wasn't crowded.

Beside the two of them there were only four other costumers there since it was still quite early in the evening. Rush hour wouldn't start in another two hours so there was plenty of room.

None of them had spoken on the way there.

When they ordered their food they both just took something light to eat. Gaara didn't look at the waitress who took their order and he simply said the number of the dish instead of the name, using his voice as little as possible.

Neji did the opposite and gave the waitress a polite smile and stated the name of his food clearly. The girl smiled flirtatiously at him and when she reached out to collect his menu her hand 'accidentally' brushed against his. Neji was very much aware of what she was doing, he was quite used to the treatment and he couldn't care less about what she was up to. However, he knew someone else who did.

When she turned around and walked away he couldn't help but to throw a quick glance at his table companion. He wasn't at all surprised when he saw that Gaara was glaring sourly after the girl, and judging from the green eyes, he was currently wishing her to the deepest depths of hell he could come up with.

It seemed as if the red head owned a bit of a possessive streak, and Neji couldn't help but to feel a bit proud over the fact that he was the cause to such a reaction from the otherwise seemingly emotionless boy.

A small smile tugged at his lips.

"You didn't answer my question earlier."

Gaara turned his eyes back to Neji.

"What question?" he asked.

His voice was low and steady. Neji realised that he had never really listened to Gaara's voice before and a part of him immediately, for some reason connected it with the image of smooth, black velvet. Or was it red?

"I asked you how you've been. You didn't answer."

Suspicion flashed in jade eyes, narrowing them slightly.

"Why do you want to know that so badly? What does my state of mind matter to you?"

"Quite a bit, actually."

Gaara blinked.

"Here you go, sir."

The waitress was back with their food which she carefully placed on the table before turning towards Neji.

"Would you like anything else?" she asked with a big smile, obviously fishing for attention.

"No, we're fine."

This time Neji didn't look at her. He still had his eyes fixed on Gaara, but she didn't seem to take the hint.

"We have an excellent dessert if you would like for later," she offered sweetly. "And we also have…"

"Go away."

She cut herself of and turned towards Gaara who was now looking straight at her.

"Excuse me?" she asked, dumbstruck.

"Go away." Gaara repeated before returning his gaze to Neji.

"You're annoying."

She stared at him for a couple of seconds before she clamped her jaw shut, grabbed the tray and stomped off between the tables with an angry huff.

Neji glanced after her as she disappeared into the kitchen and then looked at Gaara.

"Wasn't that a bit harsh?" he asked with an amused smirk.

Gaara raised a brow at him.

"You wanted her to stay?" There was not a hint of sarcasm in his voice.

At this Neji actually laughed.

"Certainly not. But perhaps you could have said it a bit less hostile?"

Gaara shrugged, a bit of the tension disappearing from his shoulders.

"She seemed incapable of taking a hint."

"Indeed…" Neji smiled.

They were actually having a proper conversation. If someone had told him when he got out of bed this morning that he would end the day with discovering that he was gay and then take Gaara out for dinner, Neji would immediately have asked said person if he or she was completely insane.

Funny how things worked out sometimes.

He reached out for the hashi-sticks lying next to his plate, finally feeling that eating would be okay.

"Confused."

He looked up again.

"Huh?"

Gaara looked straight back.

"That's how I've been. Confused."

Neji blinked. Of all the answers he could have gotten to that question, this was not one that he had expected.

Gaara probably saw that he was a bit taken off because he kept watching him.

"That's what you wanted to know, was it not?"

"Yes. Yes it was…"

Neji put the chopsticks down again, his stomach clenching nervously as he recalled the reason to why he had gone looking for the other boy in the first place.

He brought one of his hands up and pinched the bridge of his nose lightly and sighed.

"Truth to be told… I can't say I blame you."

He glanced up and swallowed when he met the look from Gaara's eyes.

Apologies had never been a frequent action from Neji's side.

Sure, sometimes he had been forced to admit mistakes and apologise for things during missions, but that had only been professional, one-for-the-record-apologies.

Being sincere and actually care about if the other person would forgive you or not… Now that's a completely different story…

He straightened up and folded his hands on the table in front of him, willing them together, knowing that if he didn't they would start fidgeting all over the place.

A nasty family-trait it seemed.

Neji had never had the same trouble as Hinata, but occasionally he would find it hard to keep his fingers under control during the few times he actually got nervous.

Same thing went with his hair.

All Hyuuga-men wore their hair loose, except for Neji who had it tied up.

Preventing it from falling into his face.

_Liar, liar, pants on fire…_

The most vital reason to why he wore it in his low ponytail was because if he didn't, he would start fiddling with it and twirl it in between his fingers whenever he felt pressured.

Had it been loose right now, he would probably have had his fist full of it already.

Gaara's piercing eyes did nothing whatsoever to calm his already flustered state of mind.

He cleared his throat, slightly shocked over how strenuous it suddenly was.

"I owe you an apology."

There, he said it.

"For what?"

"For acting like an idiot."

"How?"

_Damn it, is __he doing it on purpose?! _

He studied Gaara's face, but the features revealed nothing about if the questions were being asked just to torment him.

Seemed as if he didn't have much of a choice. He wouldn't get away with a light pat on the back and a mumbled out 'sorry' on this one…

"I…"

He did an attempt to look into Gaara's eyes, but somehow couldn't get his own gaze over the other boy's neck. Deciding that it would have to do, he took a deep breath.

"I've treated you horribly." He started, keeping his voice steady and choosing his words carefully before speaking.

"I've been acting childish and immature, saying things to you that you didn't deserve. I've been selfish and insensitive, not bothering with listening or even trying to figure out what was going on. I've been hiding from you and right now I feel like I'm the biggest fool ever to walk the earth for doing so."

Finally his eyes managed to climb up to meet the other's and he felt his heart shrink inside his chest.

Gaara had not changed his expression the slightest during his confession. He just sat there and looked at him, and for some reason those green eyes suddenly felt very cold.

Neji felt the breath get caught in his throat and anything else he might have thought about saying died on his tongue.

"I'm sorry…" he managed to breath out.

Without a word Gaara reached out and grabbed his chopsticks, broke them in two and turned towards his food and started eating.

Neji stared.

Gaara brought the food to his lips and put it in his mouth. Unhurriedly, calmly, as if he was sitting by himself somewhere many miles from Neji, as if the Hyuuga and his little speech didn't mean a thing or even happened at all.

After hesitating a while Neji slowly grabbed his own tableware and started eating as well, anxiousness stirring in the pit of his stomach.

Again, Gaara had done something completely different from what he had been expecting, making him stumble and loose his balance, leaving him grappling blindfolded after the fleeting strands of logic that would prevent him from falling completely.

He told himself that this wasn't so bad. It could have been worse.

At least he hadn't walked away. Or screamed at him. Or tried to attack him.

For the moment Gaara didn't seem to be going anywhere.

They ate in silence, although Neji hardly felt the taste, and even the slightest unexpected sound or movement from the other boy made him tense up like a bowstring just before the release.

Maybe this had been a mistake? Maybe he should just have let things be and ignored him? Then he wouldn't be sitting here with his heart jumping out of his chest every thirteenth second… Why did he always have to get into messes like this? Messing things up was Naruto's job, not his!

He chewed on another piece of the rice in an attempt to actually enjoy the food he had paid for, but the sticky texture only stuck to the ceiling of his mouth, making swallowing feel as if he was trying to suffocate himself with it.

A fitting end for a person like him who had always liked rice.

Fate must have a sense of humour…

After what felt like an eternity, Gaara finally put down his chopsticks.

"Apology accepted."

At that moment Neji felt like slumping down onto the table and let out a deafening sigh of relief, but since he was Neji, he held it in and just nodded and smiled.

"I'm glad to hear that." He said simply.

Since both were now finished they got up and left the diner.

Neji left a generous tip along with the payment. Staying on good terms with people was always a good thing, fan girls or not.

The streets were busier then before, even though it was sure to get more crowded in less than an hour.

Again, none of them said anything. But at the same time they didn't feel like they needed to.

Some people looked at them as they passed, but they were just fleeting glances of regardless disinterest that the two hardly noticed.

Neji wondered what the redhead was thinking about.

A quick glance from the corner of his eye showed him that Gaara was walking alongside with him with his eyes directed straight forward. His face was completely blank and didn't show any indication of what was going on inside his head.

Then suddenly he stopped.

Neji kept walking a couple of steps before he realised that the other wasn't coming and stopped to.

"What's wrong?"

Gaara just kept looking down the street and slowly a scowl appeared on his face and his lower jaw dropped somewhat.

Neji followed his gaze and turned around.

Further down the street was a small café with a small clearing outside where the staff had placed tables and chairs for costumers to sit.

At first he didn't see it.

Perhaps because it was so completely unlikely and even unnatural to a point, but then his eyes locked on something that made his own jaw drop as well.

Shikamaru was sitting by one of the tables, casually leaned back with his arms behind his head and next to him was another person… a very much _female_ person.

They seemed to be engaged in some sort of conversation and Neji had to fight back the urge to rub his eyes when Shikamaru actually smiled at the girl. Note, not smirked or did a mocking sneer. A genuine smile.

Shikamaru… and a girl?

He looked at the girl again.

Blonde with the hair tied up in four pig-tails on the back of her head, a pale purple dress/tunic… Where had he seen her before?

He glanced at Gaara and then it clicked.

That girl was Gaara's sister. Temari, wasn't it?

He looked back at the couple. Temari had just leaned over and placed a hand on Shikamaru's thigh with a mischievous smirk playing in the corner of her mouth. Shikamaru looked down on it and then rolled his eyes at her, but didn't make any attempt to remove the hand.

Was it possible… that they were on a date?

The next moment he heard Gaara do a sound next to him. A very uncharacteristic, choking sound.

Neji looked at him and saw that the boy now had tilted his head slightly to the left and was staring openly at the couple, mouth open in something that could only be described as shock.

"Gaara…?"

Gaara blinked, but didn't move otherwise.

"Gaara?"

"He was at the hotel."

Now it was Neji's turn to blink.

"What?"

"The day after the party. He was standing in the hallway."

He scowled.

"She said he was being troublesome and was just about to leave…"

Distantly Neji remembered the conversation he had overheard between Shikamaru and Chouji at the barbeque restaurant the day after the party and suddenly everything seemed to fit in.

"_By the way, where were you, Shikamaru?" _

"_I had to do something so I left early."_

"_Oh? What did you do?"_

"_Nothing special."_

_A slight glimpse of pink on the brunet's cheeks._

Oh yes, suddenly it all made perfect sense.

And apparently Gaara didn't know about Shikamaru's trade-phrase, otherwise he would have understood the pun his sister had given him.

He almost laughed, but restrained it to a small smile.

"Well… 'Troublesome' doesn't necessarily mean 'bad'." He said.

Gaara finally broke his eyes away from the other two and turned towards him.

"How?"

Neji shrugged and glanced at the other boy..

"You're troublesome."

Gaara stared at him and then he hastily turned away.

Neji looked at him, suddenly with a smirk on his face.

Was Gaara blushing?

Neji couldn't see, but he had a strong suspicion that at least _that_ pun hadn't gone by unnoticed.

…

Hold it!

Had he just given Gaara a _pun_?!

Why had he done that?!

Argh!

He gave him a god damn _pun_!

Stupid, stupid, stupid!

How weird mustn't Gaara think he was now?

He coughed and turned the other way.

Now _he_ was blushing.

He _never_ blushed!

Except for Hinata, Hyuugas _never blushed_!

However, the warmth spreading over his cheeks told otherwise.

He stared down onto the street, concentrating his mind on a small rock by his feet, studying its shape and curves to keep his thoughts away from the embarrassing sentence he had just heaved out.

Slowly his face returned to its normal colour and he could turn around again, only to find that Gaara was looking at him with one of his brows raised. He leisurely moved his gaze from Neji's face to the rock on the ground and back to Neji again.

How someone could put so much questioning emphasis behind a single look was, to Neji, a mystery.

Then the sand-ninja walked straight past him, heading down the street, only to stop after a few feet, looking over his shoulder at him.

"You coming?"

"Sure."

Neji quickly caught up with him and they started walking again.

"I was just thinking about something."

"I see."

Again, Gaara's voice revealed nothing.

Eventually they reached one of the hotels in the northeast part of town and Gaara stopped.

Neji looked up at the facade of the building. It was smooth, nothing fancy, more like a motel than a hotel that would have been fitting for the former Kazekage's children.

Yes, Neji knew who Gaara and his siblings were the offspring off, Hiashi-sama had been rambling about it for weeks before the chuunin-exams had started.

Neji hadn't really paid any attention. If he was paired with one of them in the tournament he didn't give a damn about who his opponent's family was.

He looked at Gaara.

"You live here?"

"For now."

They went silent.

Another thing Neji found awkward.

Good-bye-talk…

"So…"

He turned around partially.

"I guess I should get going."

He looked up at Gaara who was staring at a point next to Neji's feet.

"We're cool?"

Gaara looked up.

"Yeah. We are."

Neji smiled

"Good."

He started to leave.

But he couldn't.

Coming to think of it, did he really want to?

Gaara was still looking at him, mineral-green pools that reflected the light from the late afternoon sun.

Neji opened his mouth.

"I…"

He closed it again.

His feet were reluctant to move.

Mouth opened a second time.

Those eyes…

They suddenly came closer as Gaara took a step forward, reducing the distant between them to only a few feet.

Jade locking onto silver.

A fluttering sensation in his stomach.

"I should go."

Heartbeats speeding inside his chest.

Closer.

"Yes."

Breath against his lips.

"Gaara?"

Annoyance clouded Gaara's eyes and he turned around with a low growl.

Kankuro was standing in the doorway looking at them.

"Where have you been?"

He received a glare in return that almost made him take a step back into the building.

"Out."

Kankuro gulped.

Then Gaara turned back to Neji.

"You should go now."

Neji nodded.

"I'll see you around."

Gaara's eyes seemed to soften a bit before he turned back and walked inside the house. Kankuro pressed himself as far away from his brother as he could manage in the narrow doorway and once the redhead had passed he let out a silent, relieved sigh.

A victory to rashly celebrated.

"Kankuro. Get in here."

The puppeteer stiffened at the sound of Gaara's voice and his eyes nervously flickered towards the doorway.

Neji was truly thankful for the fact that he wasn't in that guy's clothes as Kankuro reluctantly walked inside and closed the door behind him.

Neji looked at the closed door for a couple of seconds before turning around and walking down the street, heading home.

As he turned the corner his legs almost gave in on him and he leaned heavily against a nearby wall.

They had almost…

It had been so close.

If Kankuro hadn't showed up…

For some reason he couldn't decide if that had been a good or bad thing.

There were still butterflies lingering in his stomach and the spot where Gaara's breath had hit his face still felt flushed.

He moved a hand up and placed two fingers at his lower lip.

So close.

_You really like him don't you?_

_Yes._

At least now he could be sure that he had been forgiven…

He had now idea how long it took to get home, but when he walked in through the door to the mansion the sun had already set and the hallway before him was dark.

Not that he needed light; he could walk these halls blindfolded.

He started heading down the corridor towards his room when he spotted a small stream of light that came flowing underneath one of the closed doors.

So, Hinata was home already?

Lately she had been having a habit of staying out way later then this.

He was about to walk pass when the door abruptly opened and he turned his eyes towards the opening and stopped dead in the middle of a step.

Because the person in the doorway was not Hinata.

It was Kiba.

And he was shirtless.

The dog-nin stared at Neji and it was obvious that this was the last person he wanted to be standing outside the door at this moment.

"Kiba, are you sure you should...?"

Hinata emerged from behind Kiba's back but her words died as she spotted her cousin.

Thank god she still had all of her clothes on.

Neji didn't know what to say.

Time stood still and he could barely bring himself to blink.

Slowly his mind began processing the information this sight provided him with.

Shirtless Inuzuka.

In his home.

In his cousins room.

Hinata staying out late.

Hinata blushing fiercely and stuttering like a mad person when asked where she's been.

Hinata, who always stays formal with everyone, missing out on the '_–kun'_ suffix in Kiba's name, which she, by the way, always used towards said Inuzuka when out in public...

Time napped back into movement again and Neji saw Kiba's eyes widen and how a small sweat drop slowly began forming on his left temple.

Behind him Hinata dropped something on the floor, which at a closer inspection turned out to be Kiba's jacket.

"N-Nii-san..."

Her voice seemed to have an awesome impact on Kiba's ability to move, because the boy suddenly took a step back into the room and did an attempt to slam the door closed.

It would have all worked perfectly fine, if Neji hadn't stepped in between and halted the door with his foot and elbow, forcefully grabbing Kiba' shoulder and hauling him back into the corridor and slam him up against the wall.

"Nii-san!"

"You stay in there."

And with that Neji closed the door in his cousin's face.

Kiba instinctively closed his eyes, because he was sure that he now was a dead man. Neji would kill him and feed him to his own dogs.

"Inuzuka. Open your eyes."

Reluctantly Kiba peered an eye open and looked up at Neji.

Neji's face was calm, and his eyes were looking at him very seriously.

"I have a question for you, Kiba."

Kiba nodded. If he didn't speak maybe he would live longer.

"How long have you been screwing my cousin?"

This time Kiba frantically shook his head.  
"I-We never... W-we haven't... I mean..."

"Are you planning to?"

"No! I mean, only if she... We haven't exactly gotten that far!"

"Is it serious?"

"What?"

Kiba looked up. That question somehow didn't fit in a pre-beat-up-interrogation.

Neji's eyes hardened.

"Between you and her. Is. It. Serious?"

Kiba heard the door to Hinata's room creek open, and he was sure Neji did to, but none of them looked that way.

Kiba swallowed hardly and then he glared rebelliously at Neji.

"Yes."

Then suddenly Neji let go of him and took a step back.

"Hinata."

"Y-yes?"

Neji eyed Kiba's torso and then glanced at the door.

"Make sure he doesn't walk around half-naked in the compound in the future. Hiashi-sama will put him on a restraining-order if he sees him."

"Y-yes, Nii-san..."

Kiba rubbed his shoulder where Neji had pressed him up against the wall and looked at the Hyuuga.

"You're not going to beat me up?"

Neji glanced at him.

"You want me to?"

"No!" Kiba huffed.

To his surprise Neji just sighed tiredly.

"Listen, I'm not that extremely fond of you, Inuzuka and I know that your affection towards me isn't much stronger. But even though Hinata's practically like a sister to me, I have no business in who she's dating."

He turned around and started heading down the corridor again.

Kiba was just about to walk back into the room again when Neji's voice came drifting down the hallway towards him.

"Inuzuka."

"What?"  
"You hurt her and I kill you."

Kiba's hand froze on the handle, but then he relaxed again and ghosted a smile towards the floor.

"Don't worry. I'd kill myself before that."

-----------------

It was a very tired Neji who lay down to bed that night.

He was way too tired to even think about the events of the day. Too much had happened for his brain to be able to process it all before he fell asleep anyway.

But before he drifted off completely a familiar voice came drifting through his memory, as clear as if the blonde had been kneeling beside his bed and whispered into his ear:

_You really like him don't you?_

Neji smiled distantly into his pillow and he was almost unaware of how he opened his mouth and a hardly audible mumble came drifting out.

"Yes."

_I__ think I do..._

_

* * *

_

**SMEXY PICTURE OF NEJI!!!! FOLLOW LINK ON MY PROFILE-PAGE!**

**Yummy Neji - by me!**

* * *

**Oh. My. God.**

**This must be the longest chapter I've ever written, I'm sure of it.**

**13 pages with 12pt Times New Roman...**

**I need to get a life, seriously...**

**Please write me a review so that it doesn't feel like I've written it all in vain?**

**Oh, and to the perverted part of the audience –winkwink-:**

**Don't worry, the smex **_**is**_** coming. **

**Just remain patient for a little while longer, I promise it will be worth it!**

* * *


	11. One Step Forward

**One**** Step Forward...**

"You're troubled."

Neji looked up at the redhead sitting next to him and blinked.

"What?"

It was a sunny afternoon and they were sitting on the ground with their backs against a log, overlooking the training grounds.

Almost three weeks had passed since the day at the restaurant and the almost-kiss outside of the hotel.

After that night they had met each other only on occasions, like when seeing one another in the street and such, but soon those random run-ins had turned into a steady rhythm, a pace set up between the two without any verbal agreement.

Neji found that the more time he spent with Gaara, the more fascinated he became with him.

There were such depths beneath that facade of his, and as the days passed by, that shell started to open up, widening into a small crack that kept growing steadily.

Neji had been pleased to learn that Gaara's humour wasn't that different from his own. Sarcastic, slightly cynical, and of course, executed in a way that made it hard do defy if what he said really was meant as a joke or not. He liked it.

There had been no more situations like the one Kankuro had interrupted, and for some reason Neji didn't know if that was to be considered good or bad. He would more and more often catch himself staring at the other boy's lips, wondering what they would feel like against his own and that though always made his heart beat a bit faster and causing the ever so restless butterflies slumbering in his stomach to take flight yet again.

One of those times Gaara had noticed the fascinated attention his face was receiving and turned to look at him, but Neji hadn't realised that he had been caught until a corner of the mouth he was looking at tilted upwards in a hardly noticeable smirk. Then he finally looked up only to discover that Gaara was watching him with his brow raised in amusement and a strange gleam in his eyes.

That was the second time the redhead managed to make Neji blush, even though said brunet stubbornly kept reminding himself that as a Hyuuga, he did _not_ blush!

It was almost creepy, but sometimes Neji was sure that Gaara owned some kind of mind-reading abilities. He always managed to pinpoint exactly what was going on inside his head and he always found the exact right word to describe the situation perfectly.

Therefore, Neji wasn't really that surprised when Gaara suddenly spoke out like that, more stating the fact then actually asking him if something was wrong.

Gaara turned his head and looked at him and Neji found himself once again held by that mesmerising green gaze.

"You're troubled." He stated once again.

It wasn't really a question, but by now Neji knew that the tone that Gaara used when making such a statement was considered to be the same as one.

His eyes flickered slightly before once again returning to the ground at his feet.

"It's nothing. I was just thinking about something."

He could feel Gaara's eyes on him, but then they disappeared when the boy turned away again.

"It must be something very complex then."

"Why do you think that?"

Gaara glanced at him.

"You've been thinking for the last six days, and since you obviously still are, I assume that you haven't found a solution yet."

Again, he didn't really ask a question, but the meaning behind the sentence was clear to Neji;

_What's bothering you?_

Neji dug the heel of his sandal into the soft soil in front of him.

Gaara was right, as always.

He had been thinking about a dilemma of his recently.

But in order to reach a conclusion to his problem, he would have to ask Gaara about it, and he wasn't sure that he wanted to do that.

Not yet at least.

The outcome of such an act could have devastating effects on his pride, and having Gaara laughing at him for being soft was probably more than he would be able to take.

But at the same time he felt that he had to know, even if his ego was left shattered on the ground afterwards...

No, he couldn't ask him! He would just regret it.

He was about to look up and tell him that it was alright, that it was nothing important at all, when Gaara spoke again.

"I know it's about me."

The Hyuuga's mouth clamped shut when Gaara turned to study his face again.

"You've been looking at me more then usual lately."

Neji felt his heart skip a beat. Had he really been that obvious?

"I..." he trailed off. Gaara raised a brow at him.

"You...?"

Neji swallowed. He was trapped.

"I was just thinking about something."

"You've said that already."

Relentless. Persistent. Inescapable.

How did he always end up getting pushed into a corner like this when he tried to hide things from Gaara?

He sighed and rubbed his brow but decided to hell with it.

"I've been thinking about Ino's party." He said.

Gaara didn't say anything, but the look he gave Neji in return was sharp and attentive. That look made Neji's composure falter somewhat and he continued, a whole lot more unsteady;

"I... I've just been wondering... I don't remember anything from back then, I know you've figured that out already, but...

He took a deep breath.

_All right, here goes nothing._

"When we, you know... Did I...? I mean, was it...?"

He glanced up, hoping that Gaara would understand what he was trying to stutter out and realised that the redhead was smirking at him.

There was a mirthful shimmer in those green orbs of his and it almost looked as if he had a hard time to keep himself from grinning openly.

Neji quickly turned away. Oh, he knew that it had been stupid! Why did he have to go and ask?!

"So... that's what's been troubling you."

There was a hint of amusement in Gaara's voice and it was with a nervous clench in his stomach that Neji glanced over at the other boy.

Gaara had leaned back onto his elbows and was studying the sky above them with a thoughtful look on his face.

Neji cleared his throat.

"Yeah... I mean, since I don't remember... I was just curious about if..."

"... I enjoyed it?"

Neji felt his ears heat up at the blunt question, because now it really was a question, and he thanked himself for having long hair to cover them up, hiding their flushed state.

He had a feeling that Gaara was smirking at him again, but he didn't look up to see if he was right.

There was a long silence before Gaara finally spoke again.

"You were..."

Neji held his breath.

"... troublesome."

_What?!_

Neji snapped his head up and stared at the other teen. What kind of an ungrateful answer was that?!

Gaara looked back at him calmly, still smirking and slowly the pun started to sink in.

The blush on his ears slowly spread down his cheeks and for the hundredth time in less than a month he cursed the fact that he had such pale skin.

Gaara just kept looking at him, relishing in the sweet taste of revenge that the sight of the flustered Hyuuga provided him with, before turning away again, sighing quietly.

"You really don't remember do you?"

Neji's attention returned at the sudden change of tone.

Gaara had his eyes fixed on the sky again, his brow furrowed slightly.

Neji sighed.

"'No. Not a thing."

"Not even when you pushed me up against the wall and molested me?"

Neji choked on his own breath.

"What?!"

This time Gaara grinned openly at him, obviously finding the Hyuuga's reaction highly amusing.

"Apparently not." He smirked.

"Now hold on just a minute! There's no way I would do such a thing! I didn't even know you back then!"

Gaara shrugged.

"Apparently it didn't stop you. But then again... I guess half a bottle of tequila has a way of clouding one's judgement." He added smugly.

"You're making fun of me aren't you?" Neji huffed.

"Never."

"Liar."

A new silence lowered itself over the two boys, but this time it was a comfortable one.

The tension in Neji's chest had eased, and he actually felt happy that Gaara had confronted him about this.

He let his eyes drift to the other boy again.

Gaara's eyes were closed and he had his head tilted back, seemingly enjoying the warmth of the sun against his face. The sight of the exposed neck and throat made Neji's stomach tighten almost painfully, sending a by now familiar electric bolt through his body.

He still couldn't understand how a single glance of that creamy skin could cause his body to react in such a way, but he knew that there would be no use in trying to figure it out either.

There were times when he longed to touch that skin, just as he would long for those lips to connect with his own, to have the taste of the sand-nin on his tongue yet again...

But Gaara kept his distance and Neji had a strong suspicion that it was because he didn't want to scare Neji away.

Neji didn't blame him for that reasoning. Considering the way he had acted before, it was a perfectly legitimate theory.

It had been clear to him for quite some time now, that if he wanted anything more out of this situation they were in, he would have to take the first step himself.

He had intended to a couple of times, but changed his mind at the last second, not really knowing why.

He knew that Gaara liked him. He had heard the words be spoken from the redheads own mouth.

So why had he been hesitating?

He _knew_ that his feelings were responded, so there was absolutely no reason to hesitate!

And now, as his eyes once again drifted to lock onto the light curve of those sinfully, hot lips belonging to the other boy, he couldn't recall the reason for all he was worth.

Gaara sighed, a quiet, content breath that sent a new aching throb through his veins.

He wanted to. Oh God, how he wanted to...

In the back of his head he had already decided long before his body started moving, and when he lowered his lips over Gaara's he had never felt so sure about anything in his entire life.

Gaara gasped when Neji's lips moved over his and his eyes shot open.

Neji used the opening it gave and slipped his tongue in between the parted lips, his entire body humming in response as the wet muscle slipped over Gaara's own.

At first Gaara seemed completely shocked over the sudden intrusion, but then Neji felt as if a fist had been slammed into his abdomen as the redhead moaned into the kiss and slipped a hand around his neck, pulling him closer.

He lost track of time, he couldn't think about what they were doing or how or when it would end, he just knew that he didn't want it to.

But, being the human being he was, he couldn't be without air for a longer period of time.

When they finally broke apart, they both were panting heavy and Neji was sure that he saw white spots dance in front of his vision for a couple of seconds.

He looked down on Gaara who at some point during their kiss had slid down onto his back and was now lying fully on the ground.

He still had his eyes closed and his chest was rising and falling swiftly as his lungs greedily sucked in whatever air they could accommodate.

When his breathing had slowed down to somewhat normal again, Neji felt the hand behind his neck move down and slowly grab hold of the hair that was gathered into his low ponytail and then Gaara opened his mouth.

"Do that again." he panted out.

Neji licked his lips and was about to do as he was told when a wicked smile crept over his lips.

"Why?" he asked teasingly.

The hand holding his hair did a sharp tug forward and Neji hissed when his head was pulled down and turned to the side from the force of the sudden lash, his left ear hovering right above Gaara's mouth.

His body shivered when he felt the tip of a moist tongue slowly trace around the shell of his ear and when his head was being forced even closer he couldn't help but to moan quietly from the slight pleasurable strain the pulled hair put on his skin.

Gaara's voice was low and filled to the brim with restrained hunger when he half growled, half hissed into Neji's ear.

"I said; _Do_. _That_. _Again_."

------------------------

It was an equally emotionally and physically drained Neji that returned to Konoha after another mission two weeks later.

It was early afternoon and in front of him, his ever so energetic sensei and equally energetic team mate was discussing something completely irrelevant as usual, while Tenten walked alongside with him in silence.

They had been on a week-long mission in the outskirts of Fire country's north border, helping with catching a league of thugs and thieves that had been harassing the villages there.

Defeating the thieves had been easy; they had all basically given up after Lee kicked the snot out of their leader. Finding their hideout however had taken almost three days.

Now, they were finally on their way home, listening to never-ending exclamations of Lee and Gai who had discussed the powers of youth from the moment they left their hosting village up to this point, and both Neji and Tenten had started to feel the urge to scream every time the word "youth" was uttered.

When the familiar red gates of Konoha emerged on the road ahead of them, it was with a relieved sigh that the two speeded up their steps, looking forward to finally be able to escape their two spandex-green headaches.

As they got closer, Neji spotted a figure sitting on the arch of the gate and moments later he also spotted the gourd that said figure had strapped onto his back and he smiled.

Once at the gates, Gaara jumped down from his scouting position and landed in front of Neji with his arms crossed over his chest and with a murky look on his face.

"You're late." He stated bluntly.

"It's only midday." Neji answered with a shrug.

"You said you'd be back this morning."

"We got delayed."

"You said you'd be back this morning." Came the persistent answer.

Neji sighed and rolled his eyes. There was no use in arguing with Gaara while he was in that mood.

"Alright, sorry."

He glanced back at his team mates who were still standing by the gates.

Gaara followed his gaze to them.

"When are you reporting in?" he asked silently.

"Later this afternoon."

"Good."

Neji looked at him, but Gaara was still watching Lee and Gai as the two of them gave each other a bone crushing hug.

"They were the reason you were late?" he asked.

Neji sighed and rubbed his brow with his hand in a tired motion.

"More or less."

"I see."

Gaara turned around and started walking away. Neji followed him, happy to finally be able to separate himself from his loud team mates.

They walked through the streets in silence. Neji was too tired to ask where they were heading, but wasn't overly surprised when they stopped outside the front door of the hotel Gaara was staying at.

Gaara opened the door and stepped inside, waiting for Neji to follow him.

They walked up the stairs until they reached the door to Gaara's room and after unlocking it they walked inside.

The small apartment consisted of a single room, which contained a bed placed at the shorter wall almost directly in front of the door. On the other side of the room there was a small kitchen area with a table with two chairs on each side of it. None of the furniture carried any signs of having been used anytime recently.

When they had entered and the door had closed behind them, Gaara turned towards Neji and roughly grabbed hold of the front of his shirt, pulling him into a heated kiss.

"You made me wait, Hyuuga." He growled out as he pulled back for air.

Neji smiled and replied with pressing his lips against Gaara's again, starting a new kiss just as passionate as the first one.

"I've missed you to, Gaara..."

They kissed again, both determined to make up for the week they had been apart and Neji's bag slowly slid of his shoulder and hit the floor with a soft thud as he wrapped his arms around the smaller boy.

Their breaths mingled with each other's and soon Gaara's hand found its way to Neji's hair, loosening the tie that held it together. He swirled a couple of strands around his fingers and tugged at them, smirking when Neji hissed into their kiss.

Neji loved having his hair pulled. He kept saying that he didn't, but he obviously couldn't stop the trembles from running through his body or the desperate moans from escaping his throat with each tug.

With that knowledge in the back of his mind, Gaara pulled the hair again, but broke apart from the kiss so that Neji's moan wasn't muffled by his lips. He loved it when Neji made those sounds. Especially when he was the one who caused them.

"Say it again." he ordered.

"I've missed you..." Neji whispered breath grew heavy as Gaara moved his lips down to nip and kiss his neck fiercely, receiving a new breathless moan when he leisurely latched on to and sucked on Neji's pulse.

Then Neji's entire body shook when Gaara's hand slipped underneath the hem of his shirt, the blunt nails scratching the skin slowly, moving down... His eyes snapped open.

They had not gone any further than making out since their first (voluntarily) shared kiss and neither had they been in any real skin-on-skin contact since that day in the alley all those weeks ago.

Neji had thought about taking it up, but then he had been assigned with that mission and been forced to go away.

Doing something now, so suddenly... without even discussing it...

He reluctantly grabbed hold of Gaara's arm.

"Gaara... you don't have to..."

"Do you want me to touch you, Hyuuga?" the words where whispered hotly into his ear, breathed out in a husky voice that made Neji's entire body quiver.

"I want to touch you." The fingers underneath Neji's shirt went back to scratching their nails along his stomach and chest as Neji's hand slid off the arm.

"I..."

"Don't you want me to touch you?" The boy's tongue flicked the lobe of his ear and Neji couldn't bring himself to do anything more than moan and nod breathlessly.

Of course he wanted him to.

Gaara's body pressed tighter against his and he kissed him again, letting his tongue take turns on dipping inside Neji's mouth and lick at his lower lip.

Neji could feel the hand in his hair leave and grab hold of his hip instead, thrusting it forward against Gaara's own body, making Neji gasp loudly at the sudden friction.

"Don't try to hold it back from me..." The redhead growled and let the lobe of the Hyuuga's ear slide in between his lips.

"I said I was going to make you scream my name, didn't I?"

Neji felt something move up underneath his shirt from behind him, up towards his neck and out along his arms, raising them up and pulling his shirt up over his head in one fluid motion.

He chuckled lightly.

"You use your sand for undressing as well?" he asked.

"Removing clothes is no fun." Gaara answered matter-of-factly and ran his fingers over Neji's now exposed chest. Neji followed the digits as they slid across his skin, making small goose-bumps where they touched.

"I guess its better then getting them cut off with a kunai."

Gaara looked up at him.

"You don't want it touching you?"

Neji's breath hitched slightly when something that felt unmistakably much like sand ran down his spine and he shuddered involuntarily.

_He did that on purpose, damn it!_

"It's not that bad. Weapon as weapon." He smirked.

Gaara's finger did a little swirl above his belly button and the boy tilted his head thoughtfully to the side.

"Well, if the thought of it makes you feel uncomfortable, I suppose I could always..."

"Do this." Another, identical voice ended huskily from behind him.

Neji turned his head startled to the side, only to find a sandclone of Gaara standing less than an inch away from him and the moment after he felt a pair of arms wrap around him from behind, pulling him closer.

Lips made of sand moved over his neck, creating wonderful friction against his skin, scratching and rubbing against it roughly.

Gaara's hand that had been resting against his chest shoved him backwards until he was almost slumping into the arms of the clone and then hungry lips lowered themselves over his body.

Neji moaned as Gaara kissed his way from one side of his chest to the other, nipping with his lips and sometimes biting down teasingly.

Behind him, the clone's right hand had moved up and was now circling his left nipple with its thumb while the left one was draped around his waist, doing the same thing to a sweet spot right above his hip that he didn't even know he had.

His eyes shut when both of Gaara's hands moved down his chest and began undoing his trousers, at the same time as the clone gently bit down on his shoulder, nibbling its way up to a point right below his ear, making him gasp loudly in mixed pain and pleasure, writhing helplessly in the strong grip that held him.

"Gaara...Wha-ah...What are you...?"

Gaara looked up at the other boy, who currently seemed to be balancing on the edge to shivering and trembling incoherence and smirked.

"You really don't know that?"

Neji chuckled quietly at the sarcastic response, but the laughter quickly turned into a new moan when Gaara's hand slipped inside his boxers.

"Then why don't you let me show you..."

The trousers were pushed down along with his underwear and Gaara stepped closer.

The hand moved slowly, stroking firmly with agonising precision, and Neji's head unconsciously tilted back against the clone's shoulder, moaning between clenched teeth.

"God..."

Gaara's hand felt cold against his heated flesh, but to Neji it was far from uncomfortable and as the thumb began tracing the vein on the bottom of his member up and down, the difference in heat only served to increase the pleasurable bolts of electricity the movement sent coursing through his body.

Gaara leaned his head against Neji's body and kissed and licked it from the tip of the shoulder to the jaw line, as the clone on Neji's other side mimicked the movement on the right shoulder.

Neji was trapped between he two bodies, one human and one not, but both pleasurable alike, panting desperately for air as his breath kept hitching with each nip or lick from the two set of mouths that were assaulting his skin.

The hand between his legs was still moving in the same slow place, and it was with torturesome insight that Neji realized that Gaara wasn't planning on speeding up any time soon.

It had to be faster. He was going crazy...

"Please... Gaara, go faster..."

He felt the lips against his neck curve into a smile.

"Why?"

Neji groaned. Why? Why did this guy have to have such a damn long memory-span?!

And how come he always managed to use Neji's own teasing and puns against him?

He opened his mouth to tell the other boy to stop being such an asshole, but Gaara didn't wait for him to get there.

He speeded up, letting out a small moan of his own as Neji's leg accidentally brushed against his own hardening through the trousers as Neji's body did a light twitch from the sudden increase of pleasure.

Neji opened his eyes at the sound and looked down at the other boy who was still leaning against his shoulder.

He could feel Gaara's breath ghost over his skin as the boy tried to keep it steady, and he pushed his leg forward once again, rubbing invitingly against Gaara's body, his lower regions twitching when Gaara let out another strangled groan.

"Gaara..." he panted, trying to gather his thoughts and somehow manage to form them into an understandable sentence.

Gaara looked up at him.

"Let me touch you."

He moved his leg again, but instead of pushing against it, Gaara moved away, closing his eyes.

"Not yet."

Neji scowled.

"Why no..." he was cut off when Gaara's lips roughly crashed against his, shutting him up. Teeth bit down loosely on his lower lip, sucking at it eagerly.

"Not yet..."

Neji's eyes fluttered shut when the speed on his cock quickened. His hands that had been hanging down loosely by his sides, suddenly reached up and grasped around the boy in front of him, pulling him closer, grinding their bodies together.

"I want to... touch... you." He hissed, his hand moving down and in between the layers of clothes on Gaara's body, wrapping slender fingers around the throbbing muscle in Gaara's trousers.

Gaara's frame shook violently and Neji felt every nerve in his entire body sing from excitement when Gaara finally let out a loud, unrestrained moan followed by shallow, panting breaths.

Speeding up to match his movements with Gaara's hand that was still pumping him, Neji felt the hands of the sandclone leave his chest and stomach and draw back to his shoulders and neck, up through his hair and then grab two fistfuls of long, dark brown strands and tug roughly, forcing him to tilt his head back.

"Fuck, Gaara...!"

He pushed the other boy tighter against himself, feeling hot white fire stream up from his abdomen when the clone once again pulled his hair, accompanied by the intoxicating thrusts of Gaara's hand.

He wouldn't be able to hold it back much longer.

Gaara's body was trembling now and he was leaning heavily against Neji's chest, panting and moaning breathlessly, because he didn't know what else to do. His mind had seized to function and the only thing to existed was he and Neji, Neji's breath against his skin, Neji's body against his, Neji's arm around him, Neji's hand... burning, scorching, _feeling_!

"Gaara... I... "

The clone pulled Neji's hair sharply and Gaara raised his head to look into those lilac, silver-clouded eyes, feeling the climax approaching like a burning flame slowly coursing through his body.

"Scream my name."

Neji's eyes widened at the sudden order, but he opened his mouth, only to close it again when his eyes fluttered from another wave of heat caused by the clone's hands in his hair.

Gaara slowed down, forcing the Hyuuga's attention back to him, locking his eyes with his own, though once he slowed down he became fully aware of how close he was himself and he grabbed Neji's hand which was still working him, stilling the movements roughly.

"Say my name." he ordered. Neji looked at him, his chest heaving swiftly, small beads of sweat trickling down his skin.

"Gaara."

"Again."

Gaara released the hold of Neji's arm, biting back a gasp as the hand started moving again.

"Gaara."

_Faster._

"Louder."

He began moving his own hand, matching the speed to his lover's.

Neji threw his head back in a loud moan when the heat returned to his system, stronger and far fiercer than before.

"Ga-ah!"

"I want to hear you scream it..."

"Gaara...! Y-yes..."

"_Scream _it."

"Gaara... Oh, Gaara, please... Gaara, Gaara, Gaara, _Gaara_!"

"Neji...!"

Gaara buried his face in Neji's shoulder when the orgasm hit him and he felt his body twitch uncontrollably when the white heat raced through him, blinding him, burning him and then leaving him panting and shivering in it's afterglow. Neji's head fell forward as the sandclone behind him released its grip of his hair and crumbled to the floor with a whispering sound.

If they hadn't been standing so close to each other they would most certainly have fallen to the floor, but as they were now, they provided each other with enough support to keep them standing.

Neji's mind was empty, his body was completely spent and from the short, ragged sounds coming from the body in his arms, Gaara's condition wasn't much better.

His lips curved in a light smirk as he looked down at the red whirls that were Gaara's hair.

"I liked the sound of that." He said cagily.

Gaara didn't look up but Neji could feel the other boy's scowl against his neck

"Sound of what?"

"My name."

"What about your name?" There was a trace of annoyance in Gaara's voice. Apparently he didn't see the point in Neji's remark.

"It's the first time I've heard you say it."

Gaara's shoulders tensed underneath his hands, but then they relaxed again.

"So?" came the indifferent answer.

Neji held back a snort of laughter. Was it possible that he had caught the other boy doing something he considered embarrassing?

He trailed his hand up Gaara's spine and tickled his neck gently.

"Could you say it again for me? It sounded so cute."

Gaara swapped his hand away, but the glare he sent him lacked the usual force it used to project.

"In you're dreams, Hyuuga." He muttered before lowering his face back to the small junction at Neji's neck.

Neji stood quiet for a moment.

"You know, if you say it I promise I won't tell anyone how cute you looked when you-_ow_!"

He jerked back and rubbed at the quickly bruising mark on his neck where Gaara's teeth had clamped down.

"Neji..."

He looked up and got pulled into a deep kiss before Gaara smiled against his lips and breathed two words into his mouth that left absolutely no room for further protests.

"Shut up..."

* * *

**Yes, I **_**did**_** use his sand for kinky ideas, no need to tell me what a sicko I am.**

**But c'mon, as if the thought haven't crossed your mind before either.**

**Weapon as weapon, ne? ;9**

**And don't worry, the story does not end here, plenty of more to come, I promise.**

**Please review and tell me what you thought of it, please, please, please, please!!!!!**

**Ja na!**

**// Chiyume**

* * *


	12. Two Steps Back

**Two Steps Back**

Gaara's eyes snapped open and he shot up from the bed with a loud gasp.

_**Slept well?**_

Biting back a growl, Gaara rubbed his eyes testily and stood up, marched up to the window and pulled the blinds apart to look down onto the street below.

It was midday. He had slept all night.

_Why do you do that?_ He snapped back, feeling the amusement radiating from the demon residing within him.

_**Don't you like it?**_ Oh, the sarcasm was overflowing.

_I don't trust it. __You've never let me sleep before; I've never needed to either but now all of a sudden I fall asleep as soon as I lay down and close my eyes. What are you up to?_

_**You can't possibly suggest that I'm **_**making**_** you fall asleep.**_

_Tha__t's exactly what I'm suggesting. Now I'm going to ask you again; what are you planning?_

A sudden pain flared up inside his skull and he clasped around it with both hands, gritting his teeth. The demon's voice was sounding like a giant bell inside his head, the smugness and sarcasm gone; now being filled to the brim with fury and evil.

_**You **_**dare**_** take that tone against me? You dare question **_**my**_** reasons? **_**You**_**? Who are not more than a sniveling, blind whelp against my power? **_

Gaara let out a strangled groan, the pain momentarily increasing to cut through every single thread of coherence in his brain, and then just as fast, it was gone.

Grappling for the edge of the windowsill to keep himself standing, Gaara braced himself against the nausea that washed over him. Something wet trickled down to pool right above his upper lip and he didn't even have to check to know that his nose was bleeding.

_**You should be grateful for what you get, whelp. **_

Gaara wiped the blood away with his arm, not caring that the fabric got stained. Needless to say; blood didn't really faze him.

_**I've shown much patience with this foolishness that you've been displaying the last month, but don't kid yourself into believing that I approve**__** to it.**_

_Foolishness. I suppose you're referring to Neji._

A stir of annoyance came rippling through the demon's mental link.

_**The Hyuuga is not worth trusting.**_

_Really. For what reason?_

_**He's lying**__**.**_

Gaara scowled.

_Lying about what?_

_**Everything. **__**What he's saying and what he'll do isn't the same.**_

You're_calling _him_ a liar? _Gaara snarled, not bothering to hide the venom in his thoughts. The demon could sense his feeling, so there was no point anyway.

_**Soon enough you'll see what I mean.**_

Gaara snorted at the demon's cryptic answer. As usual when it didn't have any real arguments it would urge for him to 'wait-and-see'. It might have fooled him before, but since this whole thing with Neji started, Gaara had begun to grow increasingly skeptic towards the things coming from his local inhabitant's mouth.

_Fine, whatever. Now go away._

He walked up to the bedside and begun strapping his gourd on, feeling how his demand brought forth a new wave of annoyance from the demon, but it quickly got drowned out by another, more mirthful one.

_**When are you going to tell him that you're leaving?**_

Gaara's hands halted in their movements, the strap only halfway done. His eyes drifted to the scroll lying on the bedside table, the one he had received yesterday from the Sand Village's council. The one that had ordered him (very politely, though) to return home this very instant.

He could feel the raccoon's malice smirk growing wider when he resolutely turned his back towards it and resumed with putting on the gourd.

_**Where you even **__**going to? Sneak of into the night like you always do, is that what you planned?**_

"Shut up."

_**Oh, I see, you don't **__**want to talk about it? Well, too bad. What do you think your beloved Hyuuga will say once you're gone, huh? You think he'll miss you? I don't think so. He'll be glad that you're gone, he'll find someone else and then he'll forget all about you.**_

"I said, shut up."

_**You don't believe me? Then how about this; He'll say IT to you soon.**_

Gaara's eyes widened and Shukaku let out a short, shrieking laughter.

_**Oh yes, whelp!**__** He'll say IT, but he won't mean it. Just like the other's he'll say it to you, make you feel all safe and gooey and then he'll betray you. Just like the others. I know, I've felt it coming for days.**_

"No." Gaara continued to work on the straps, his face stern and cold.

_**Yes. You'll see. It won't**__** be much longer. And once he's said it, he'll want to take it **_**back**_**, because he knows he doesn't **_**mean**_** it, not with **_**you, **_**not with the vicious killer, Gaara of the Desert, oh no!**_

"You're wrong! Neji won't-..."

_**Oh, listen to you**__** whine! 'Neji won't...', well let me tell you what; Neji WILL! You're precious boy will prove me right in just a matter of days, perhaps even less, just like your uncle did, just like the rest of your pathetic family did!**_

"Shut up!"

The yell was loud enough to make the people outside the hotel stop in their tracks and look around, searching for the source of the sudden noise, but when none could be spotted they continued on their way.

Up in the room Gaara slowly removed his bloodstained hand from the remains of the mirror that up until the last five seconds used to hang above the room's night table. A few of the shards that were still stuck in the frame jingled and fell to the floor with the rest.

"Just... Shut up..."

Shukaku snorted, but Gaara could feel it's presence withdrawing.

_**You just wait**__**, whelp. You just wait...**_

* * *

Gaara took the back door out from the hotel. He didn't like the way people tended to look at him whenever he appeared in public. Even if he and Neji had been seen somewhat together in town he wasn't feeling like walking down main street alone just yet.

Coming to think of it, the only times when he and Neji had been together it had been to or from their rendezvous-point by the training grounds. And of course that one time at the restaurant.

Other than that their meetings had been very concealed and almost secret. Like...

He noticed where his thoughts where heading and quickly shook them off. Neji wasn't deliberately keeping their meetings out of sight for others, that demon was just trying to mess with his head! Probably it's own twisted idea of a game...

Adjusting his gourd one final time he then began walking down the street, heading the opposite way from where he used to go. He felt like spending some time alone.

* * *

Neji left the Hyuuga compound late in the afternoon the next day. He had been stuck in training the entire day before with Gai and the rest of the team and once he had managed to come up with an excuse to leave he had basically fallen into bed the moment he got home and then slept until noon. Today however, he was looking forward to spend his evening together with Gaara.

He hadn't been able to catch as much as a glimpse of his feisty little redhead the day before and he was seriously suspecting that he was on his way to form some kind of abstinence because of it.

Walking down main street towards Konoha Stadium and Gaara's hotel of residence he caught himself almost half running instead of the walking in the slow pace he usually kept and he firmly willed his feet to move slower, even though his chest was yelling at him not to.

He almost acted... desperate. He never acted desperate; it wasn't in his nature to get excited about nearly anything. Still, somehow this feeling had crept up on him without his awareness during the last weeks and now here he was...running again, oh come on!

Slowing down once anew he entered the street of the hotel and actually made it all the way to the door without gaining speed.

Once inside he started to make his way towards the stairs and he resisted the urge to take two steps at the time on his way up.

He had only taken the first three though when he heard a voice behind him.

"If you're looking for your friend, he's not in right now."

Neji turned around to see the young man who usually stood behind the receptions counter peek out through a door labeled "administrations office".

"Gaara?" he asked. Not that he had anyone else he knew in this place but it couldn't hurt to make sure.

"The redhead with the gourd from Sand, yeah."

"Do you know where he is?"

The guy shook his head.

"Sorry. All I know is that he left yesterday afternoon and that he hasn't come back yet."

Neji scowled. Hasn't come back?

"His luggage is still in his room and he hasn't checked out, so he should be back. If you'd like I could give him a message that you came looking for him?"

Neji shook his head.

"No, that won't be necessary. Thank you."

Feeling slightly numbed he made his way down the stairs again and was just about to open the door and walk outside when the guy poked his head out from the room once more.

"Oh, and if you do happen to find him, tell him that the mirror he broke yesterday is going on his tab."

* * *

Neji closed the door behind him with a confused frown. Gaara broke a mirror? What for?

And where had he gone to? He hadn't stayed out all night, had he?

Turning and slowly walking back down along main street he thought about what the guy at the hotel had said. Wherever Gaara had gone to, he hadn't taken his luggage with him, so he had to be in town somewhere. But where would he have gone to?

As far as Neji was concerned the Sand-nin didn't have anyone else in Konoha that he knew well enough to hang out with... except for Naruto that was.

Perhaps they were at Ichiraku's, that's where the loudmouth blonde used to hang out whenever he had a spare moment. He could always take a stroll around the neighborhood to check it out.

Said and done he started walking south, taking a shortcut behind the hospital to loose the crowd by the market place and in just a matter of minutes he found himself standing in front of the familiar white and red marquise of the famous ramen hut.

Ducking underneath the fabric he found the seats by the counter to be completely empty and he felt his shoulders slouch.

He turned to the owner who greeted him with a wide smile.

"Hello son, what can I help you with? Perhaps you're here for the take-away?"

"No, actually I'm looking for one of your patrons. Uzumaki Naruto, has he been here today?"

"Ah, Naruto. Yes he was here a less than an hour ago. He and his friend, what's his name... yeah, that Uchiha-kid."

Neji resisted the urge to roll his eyes to the sky. Naruto and Sasuke, why wasn't he surprised?

"Do you know where they went?" he asked, not having much hope of getting a helpful answer, but to his surprise the man behind the counter nodded.

"It sounded as if they were about to head for the training grounds when they left, but I don't know about that. Training so soon after eating, that can't be good for your health if you ask me. But you never know with Naruto, so if you're looking for him it wouldn't hurt to start there."

Neji nodded.

"I think I'll do that. Thank you."

But once he reached the training grounds there was no sight of neither Naruto nor Sasuke, however, the smoking, shattered remains of lumber made it pretty evident that someone had been fighting there recently.

Deciding after a quick look at the surroundings that there were no signs of that Gaara had been at the location at all he sighed heavily and felt his heart sink in his chest..

Now what was he supposed to do?

He could always call it a day and go home again, but he had really been looking forward to seeing Gaara today. He didn't want to loose that opportunity; there was no telling when he might get called back out on a mission again.

So instead the young Hyuuga prodigy spent what remained of his afternoon roaming the village, mostly going through backstreets and alleys and occasionally even the rooftops, but there was no sign of the red haired teen. Not as much as a shadow.

He momentarily considered going to Naruto's or Sasuke's to check if the couple had seen him, but then he changed his mind. He had just gotten that moron and his smarty-pants lover out of this mess and he wasn't going to let them in again, and since no one else in the village knew about him and Gaara, he was left to fend on his own.

Entering the market, he did his best to keep a look out for his lover and at the same time avoid to crash into the people that got in his way, but after almost knocking over a lady with two giant grocery bags on one arm and a screaming kid on the other he deemed it to be pointless and left through the nearest alley he could find.

His fruitless hunt continued, but just as the sun was about to set in the horizon, painting the mountain monument crimson red and casting his shadow long on the ground in front of him, he caught a glimpse of a movement in the corner of his eye. His heart fluttered hopefully as he turned towards it and sure enough there, walking out from a narrow alleyway, was Gaara.

Neji felt the corners of his mouth move up into a wide smile of relief and he quickly made his way across the street to greet the other young teen.

"Gaara! Where have you been, I've been looking for you all day."

Gaara shrugged.

"Nothing. Walking." He said in a low voice.

"I went to the hotel, but you weren't there." Then Neji's brow furrowed and he continued, more concerned. "The portiere said that you had broken a mirror earlier. What happened?"

Momentarily the look on Gaara's face seemed to darken, like when a thin stripe of a cloud sweeps across the sun on a bright autumn's day, but it quickly disappeared and he shrugged once more, looking away.

"Nothing important."

Neji opened his mouth again but then realized that trying to push the matter further would get him nowhere. If Gaara didn't want to talk about it, then there was nothing he could do or say to change that. Better to let it go and move on.

"So," he cleared his throat. "Are you doing anything special at the moment, or do you have some time to spend with me?"

The redhead in front of him didn't answer, instead he took a few steps forward out onto the main street which Neji had just left and then stopped, looking back at him as if asking if he wasn't coming.

Slightly confused by the lack of conversation, the longhaired teen followed his lover and together they started making their way through town.

As they where walking Neji was doing his best in trying to figure out the reason to Gaara's strange behavior. He knew that something must be troubling the other boy, but he couldn't figure out what. It had to be worse than a broken mirror; Gaara didn't seem to fit the type who would get upset over such a trivial thing.

He glanced over at his companion, but Gaara was keeping his eyes sternly on the road in front of them with his face stripped of emotions. Sure, the redhead didn't usually talk much, but Neji hadn't seen him like this since before they got to know each other... It was quite unnerving.

The sun was setting further and the sky above them had slowly shifted from bright orange to a deep red and purpe shade with the slightest hint of the night's first star glimmering in the distance.

When Neji tore his own eyes away from Gaara's face he wasn't surprised to find that they had made their way to the hill overlooking the training grounds. The smoke coming from the scorched logs had ceased by now and the area lay silent and desolate in front of them.

Continuing, as on reflex they made their way in between the trees until they reached the small glade where they had shared their first real kiss and without a word from either of them they sat down by the log in the middle of the clearing and leaned their backs against the firm, slightly overgrown trunk.

None of them spoke. Neji didn't know what to say, he couldn't find the words.

Of course he wanted to ask Gaara what was wrong, but at the same time he could feel that the other boy didn't want to talk and that there was a very big risk that he would answer his questions with hostility, something Neji really wanted to avoid.

The purple sunset deepened into a dark shade of blue above them and Neji slowly found his thoughts drifting away in pace with the setting sun.

A light wind swept through the glade and gently played with some of the strands of his hair.

He sighed, leaning his head back and closing his eyes for a moment, relishing in the cool caress of his skin.

As the minutes went by, Gaara's strange behavior started to seem less and less odd with every intake of the fresh air, and he started to find more and more possible explanations for it.

Everyone had bad days. Hell, even Gai-sensei could have bad days even though they only occurred like once every decade. He was probably just reading to much into it, that's all.

The best he could do was probably to just let it be and pretend like nothing, just be supportive and let things take it's time. Gaara would talk to him when he wanted to.

Feeling encouraged by these new thoughts and reasoning he moved a bit closer to the sand-nin by his side and even allowed himself to place a light hand on his knee.

Not in any way a suggestive manner, he intended it as nothing more than a supportive gesture and perhaps that was the reason to way he didn't feel the other boy's posture stiffen underneath his touch.

He also didn't see Gaara's eyes narrow dangerously as he gently let his thumb slowly rub up and down on the spot and instead took the silence as an approval.

Gaara said nothing, instead he watched the slow movements of the hand on his leg with an intensity that could have melted a rock. The thumb sliding up and down, up and down, over and over, not understanding the intention behind it but finding it's presence there intrusive beyond words.

"So... I was thinking." Neji said, not really expecting an answer. "I have the entire day off tomorrow, so if you'd like, I could stay a little longer at the hotel tonight."

"Stay a little longer." Gaara repeated slowly, not sounding all too enthusiastic about the suggestion.

Neji however, didn't notice.

"Yes. I mean, that way I won't have to leave and sneak out from the hotel in the middle of the night and come up with excuses to my uncle when I get home."

The redhead's jaw clenched tightly and the jade eyes suddenly grew cold.

"Excuses?" he asked frigidly.

"Well... He sometimes stays up late and I don't want to risk bumping in to him and get interrogated about where I've been and what I've been doing."

He smiled and gave a little chuckle.

"I mean, I can't exactly tell him that I've been off fondling the Kazekage's son at the city hotel."

"And why is that?" Gaara suddenly snapped, standing up and glaring down at the dumbfounded Hyuuga with an icy glint in his eyes. "Why can't you tell him?"

Neji scowled, somewhat stumped by the sudden hostile question.

"What do you mean, why? Isn't that obvious?"

"No. It isn't."

Neji raised his brow.

"No?" he repeated skeptically. "You mean that you don't see anything wrong with me coming home in the middle of the night and tell my uncle and caretaker, who is one of the most old-fashioned and tradition-obsessed men in Konoha, straight out that I'm gay and that I have been secretly seeing the son of another country's Kage ever since the Chuunin-exams?"

"No. I don't. Why should you care about what he thinks?"

Neji couldn't believe what he was hearing.

"Are you crazy? He'll have my head on a platter before I've finished the sentence!"

"So you are afraid of him."

This time it wasn't even a question.

"I never said that!" Neji objected heatedly. "But incase you haven't noticed there aren't that many gay people around here, and the two we know who are, are keeping their relation even more secret than we do with ours. At least we pretend to be friends."

He knew the second the words left his mouth that he shouldn't have said that last part.

Gaara's stance immediately shifted and his face grew dark.

"Pretend to be friends? Is that what you've been doing all this time? _Pretending_?"

Neji realized that this conversation was rapidly leading him onto a dangerous slope and his mind desperately tried to come up with something to say that would save him, but Gaara intercepted him.

"So this has all been a game to you? A secret pleasure that no-one was ever supposed to know about."

As he spoke, Neji noticed the pale fists clench and unclench by his sides and with a pang of realization he understood that this could become very unpleasant on his part if he didn't tread carefully.

"Gaara..." He stood up from the ground slowly and took a step towards the other, but stopped when he saw the tension in the others shoulders increase.

"Gaara, I have not played games with you. I'll admit that I wasn't very comfortable with the thought about us in the beginning, but that's all changed now. It's just that my family... this entire town, has not. I just... need to take it slow."

All in all he thought he managed to steer away from that disaster pretty well, only to find a new one in the other direction.

"Slow as in spending the night in my hotel room?" Gaara retorted with a snap, his voice intensively louder. "What kind of a fool do you take me for?"

Then his tone abruptly changed and he raised his head and looked at the other boy with eyes that could have been cut out of a stone.

"And what made you so certain that I would want you to stay the night in the first place?" he asked creully.

Once again, Neji was stumped by the unannounced change of pace in the conversation.

"Did you think that if you played your role right I would just let you follow me home and have your way with me, was that it?"

Neji shook his head, but he couldn't bring any words to leave his mouth.

He had meant the offer of staying longer as a mere caring gesture, but apparently that's not how his lover had interpreted it.

Gaara, who had shown such heated anger mere seconds ago had suddenly turned ice cold and now he looked at Neji in a way that made the older boy freeze from the inside out.

"Did you think that I would let you _fuck_ me?"

The way he said it made Neji cringe inside. It sounded so raw, so... _filthy_.

Gaara continued, his voice dripping with disgust.

"_Fuck_ me. Become your dirty little secret. Become your _bitch_."

He narrowed his eyes and glowered at Neji.

"I should have known better than to trust you."

Finally the bond on Neji's tongue decided to loosen.

"No! That's not it at all, Gaara I...!"

"Shut up." The sand-nin hissed, making Neji's chest clench.

"You just stay away from me."

He turned around and resolutely stormed out of the glade, the same way they had entered and it took Neji almost ten full seconds to he realize that things had gone horribly wrong and began stumbling after him.

"Gaara, wait!"

He caught up with the other boy just outside the edge of the trees by the training grounds and grabbed hold of his arm to make him stop. Barely had his fingers closed around the pale skin before something hard and heavy hit him in the pit of his stomach, knoking the breath out of his lungs and sending him flying backwards and land with a hard bang on the ground. White stars shot up in front of his eyes when the back of his head made impact with the firm dirt and his teeth clashed together over his tongue, causing it to bleed.

With bright spots still dancing through his vision he somehow managed to get himself into a sitting position just in time to see the last grains of sand return to the inside of Gaara's gourd.

"Don't touch me." Gaara's voice came out like a low growl, as if it belonged to a ferocious animal guarding it's territory and there was something in the way he said it that made Neji decide to stay put on the ground. Gaara's voice was shaky and his hands were balled up into hard fists by his side, knuckles white and seemingly yearning to hurt something.

Neji felt a chill run down his spine, and within the first second of meeting the gaze from those eyes his mouth ran painfully dry.

"Gaara..." It was a mere whisper, but in the silence between them it felt deafening.

"Gaara... please..."

The last burning rays of the sun had disappeared since long and the bright stars that had taken their place above didn't hold as much as a pinch of warmth. They pierced the sky like shards of ice and the breeze that had been so comforting in the glade had now turned cold and was pulling and tearing at the fabric of their clothes.

Gaara's green eyes were almost glowing in the dark and they met Neji's opal white ones without a glint of remorse.

Neji didn't' know what to do. How could it have come to this? What had he done? Why was this happening? Why?

With panic he watched Gaara turn around to walk away once more and before he could do anything about it, just knowing that he had to, he had stood up and he was already halfway through the sentence before he realized what he was confessing.

"I love you!"

Gaara's body froze.

Above them a cloud had drifted across the sky and the stars had disappeared behind it's dark frame. Neji's heart was racing in his chest as his mind was desperately trying to catch up with what his mouth had just done.

He loved him. Of course he did. There was no point in trying to hide it anymore. Still, he was so busy being chocked over the words he had finally uttered that he almost missed the one coming floating trough the air from Gaara.

"Love?"

Neji sensed a spark of hope being ignited. Perhaps he would be able to fix this still.

"Yes!" he exclaimed. "Of course I do!"

Gaara straightened up, but he didn't turn around.

"Then this ends here."

And with that, he left; leaving a stupefied Neji behind, desperately wondering about what the hell he did wrong.

* * *

The blurry images of moonlit roofs flashed underneath his feet as Gaara jumped from building to building and angerly rubbed the haze of the oncoming tears away with the sleeve of his arm.

He should have known better.

_**I told you so whelp.**_

"Shut up_._"

Gaara barely bit back a growl as he landed on the next rooftop, something that apparently amused the one-tailed demon since it burst out in a howling laughter.

_**Oh, how **__**temperamental! Did your little heart get all broken? Did your precious Hyuuga lie to you? Well, suck it up cause that's not going to change! NOBODY wants you around! Nobody wants to be your FRIEND!**_

Gaara halted his movement as the sudden image of bright blonde hair and azure blue eyes flashed through his mind.

Friend.

The demon inside his head hissed and Gaara felt a wave of seething anger ripple the usual malice surface of his inhabitant.

_**That brat again?**_

_Naruto has friends._

_**Lies! He has no friends.**__** He is surrounded by people who fear him, people who pretends to be his friends so that he won't hurt them!**_

Gaara shook his head, trying to shut the howling voice out.

_That's not true!_

Shukaku snorted.

_**And what the hell do you know? He's lying to you of course! To **__**embarrassed to admit what kind of a monster he is. To embarrassed to admit that he's just like YOU!**_

Gaara stiffened, but once again the memory of those blue eyes appeared in his head.

Naruto lie?

No.

Neji might have used him, but Naruto...

He doubted that the blonde had ever told a real lie in his entire life.

No. Not Naruto.

_**And what makes **__**him different? Why should he bother with telling you the truth in the first place?**_

_You said so yourself. Because he's just like me._

He could basically feel the bi-juu's mouth snap shut inside his head, but he wasn't given a reply.

Gaara closed his eyes.

Naruto had said that the reason to his strength came from his friends, from the fact that he had gotten accepted by the people in his village.

That was one of the biggest reasons to why Gaara had decided to approach Neji in the first place; the prospects of acceptance, of friendship.

He had been searching for ways to become like Naruto, but when he had started to become attracted to Neji things had gotten out of hand. He had missed his original target of acknowledgement and ended up... falling in love.

The pain from before came stabbing back inside his chest and he clenched his teeth.

Love.

Such a waste of time that had been.

Once again the demon gave a shrieking laughter.

_**Love? You actually **__**thought that anyone would be able to love YOU?**_

_I made a __mistake._ Gaara snapped back.

_**A **__**mistake? He USED you! You LET yourself get used. Used, fooled and ridiculed!**_

_Yeah, maybe__ I did._

Gaara took a deep breath and tilted his head back up to look at the moonshard illuminating the rooftops.

_But I won't let__ it happen again._

_**What do you mean?**_ The demon sounded suspicious at the sudden change of emotions that his host emitted, but Gaara didn't answer him.

Naruto.

The blonde had been hurt, but he had made it through, fought his way to where he was now and even if Gaara wanted to admit it or not, he had done so by consorting with other people.

Gaara just needed to be more careful. Acceptance, that's what he needed to attain.

Neji had been a mistake.

_Love_ had been a mistake.

He would not make that mistake twice...

* * *

Neji didn't know what to do.

He had barely been able to sleep at all, tossing and turning all night while trying to keep the cold from Gaara's eyes out of his memory.

Eventually he had gotten up and walked out to the bathhouse that was connected to the Hyuuga mansion, thinking that perhaps the warm water and steam would be able to bring him some clarity of the situation.

However, after almost two hours of soaking in the hot water, he realized that he was getting nothing but wrinkled skin on his fingers and toes.

So after getting his hair rinsed and dried up somewhat reasonably, he decided to go for a walk instead. He absentmindedly noticed that the sun was already staring to rise, but he kept walking, not really caring.

The fresh morning air helped clear his mind better than the bath had, but unfortunately it did nothing whatsoever for the constriction in his abdomen that threatened to make his throat choke every other minute.

He still had no idea what it was that had gone so wrong last night. Gaara had obviously been in a bad mood from the very start, but the last time they had seen each other everything had been fine.

Did something happen when he was away on training?

But why would he get so upset with Neji then?

For some reason Gaara had exploded when Neji brought up the subject of his uncle, and from there things had escalated so fast Neji hadn't even gotten a chance to catch on to what was going on.

And why had sex suddenly become such an issue anyway? As far as Neji could recall Gaara hadn't exactly been shy when it came to physical contact in the past, so why this all of a sudden?

No matter how he tried to look at it, he simply couldn't figure out what could have caused Gaara to get so upset.

He was so deep in thought that he didn't realize that he had been walking in zigzag through town only to end up right outside Gaara's hotel.

When he noticed where he was he momentarily thought about simply walking straight past the building, but then he took a deep breath and pushed the door handle down and entered the dim lobby.

Everything was quiet, but Neji quickly walked up the staircase and turned down the corridor that lead to Gaara's room.

Standing outside he had to gather himself before he finally raised his hand and knocked on the door.

His heart was banging away against his ribcage, his tongue felt like sandpaper inside his mouth and for some reason he couldn't get enough air into his lungs.

He just hoped he wouldn't get his face completely sandblasted once the door opened.

Those fears however went unanswered since the door remained closed.

He raised his hand and knocked again, but there was still no answer.

After just a moment of hesitation he then reached down and felt the handle.

Locked.

As he was contemplating on whether to press his ear against the wooden surface and try to hear if there were any signs of movements coming from the inside, an elderly woman pushing a cart full of cleaning materials, clean sheets and towels came around the corner.

She stopped when she spotted Neji and he understood that it must be unusual having guest walking the corridors this early.

"Can I help you?" she asked, eyeing him up and down.

"Uhm, no, I'm just going to see if my friend had woken up, but it seems as if he's still asleep."

The woman raised an eyebrow at him.

"Your friend?" she asked.

"Yes."

"In that room?" She gestured to the door Neji had been knocking on mere seconds ago.

"Yes..." Why did she look so skeptical?

The woman sighed as she pulled up a keychain from her pocket and walked up to the door.

She was set a bit on the heavy side, but when she moved it was like watching a warm breeze move through tall grass. It was almost... majestic.

"Well, I don't know what kind of a friend you consider him to be..." she pushed one of the keys in and turned it. "But you should probably double-check with his traveling agency in the future before you set your breakfast-meetings."

Before Neji got time to reflect upon what she meant she opened the door and he was faced with a spotless, clean and neatly organized hotel room.

No sign of Gaara.

Neji didn't know what to say. Stepping inside the room he had to fight the urge to look behind the door to se if the sand-nin was in fact hiding back there.

The maid had gone back to the cart and soon returned with a fresh stack of towels under her arm and when seeing the shocked expression on Neji's face she placed a light hand on his shoulder.

"You see, honey. I cleaned this room last night after your friend checked out."

"Checked out...?"

His mind went blank.

_Checked out. As in gone?_

"I'm sorry, sweetheart. But he seemed to be in a hurry, maybe he just didn't have time to say goodbye?"

Neji didn't answer.

Gaara left?

Last night?

The woman watched him as he slowly turned and walked out of the room and turned down the corridor and then shook her head. Kids these days, always getting so upset over the smallest things.

* * *

**Wow... That took some time.**

**I've had such a writers-block, you can't even imagine!**

**However, now I feel like I've gotten back on track again, so I'll try to update as soon as possible on all my stories. However, some stories have been around for longer than others so naturally they will have priority.**

**Hope you won't hold a grudge for me making you wait so long, it totally wasn't my intention.**

**Hugs and Kisses!**


	13. Gone

**Possible Spoilers ahead in**** case you haven't begun watching Shippuuden yet!**

**This chapter contains various scenes from different episodes of the **_**Naruto**_** and **_**Naruto Shippuuden**_** anime, starting from the Sasuke Retrieval Arch and ending with the Gaara Retrieval Arch. If you haven't seen them, then this whole chapter might come of as a bit confusing in terms of situations and circumstances, but can be cleared if one just goes with the famous flow.**

**I have mixed scenes from the animes with my own plot, but the idea is that you are supposed to be able to read my story and then watch the episodes and still be able to think that my story is somewhat canon-ish.**

**I'll leave the judging to you. **

**Enjoy! =3**

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* * *

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Gone

It was raining.

The water painted long shadows on the floor as it washed down the window, covering the room with dark stripes.

Autumn had come down over Konoha like a hammer over an anvil and the weather had been dark and gloomy for what seemed like ages, with wind and rain adding to the depression.

It always seemed to rain nowadays…

Neji was lying flat on his back on his bed, staring blankly at the ceiling.

It was in the middle of the night, but Neji couldn't care less. He hadn't been able to sleep regularly since Gaara left, which by now dated up to a week... or a month, he didn't really know...

His partially closed, silvery eyes half-heartedly traced the liquid patterns covering the transparent surface on their way to the windowsill...

Sometimes a single drop of water would break free from the thin streams and wander away across the glass, only to get swept off by another trickling path almost immediately.

It seemed not even the rain could escape it's faith of constantly falling.

Sighing, he rolled over on his side, facing away from the melancholy gloom of the weather outside.

As he did his stomach gave up a yearning growl, but he ignored it as he had taken the habit of doing during the past days.

Of course he ate, he wasn't going to starve himself deliberately, but at the moment he didn't feel like getting out of bed.

At least hunger was a feeling, and at the moment any feeling other than the familiar despair lodged in his chest was fondly welcomed.

He still hadn't come to terms with himself about how to respond to the fact that Gaara was gone. Of course his initial reaction had been to hurry after him, but then his reasonable self butted in and told him not to do anything rash.

If he left the Leaf without permission he would get in real trouble once people noticed that he was missing, but going through the official process of getting a permit would take ages, not to mention coming up with what the hell he would say to explain why he would have to leave in the first place.

And once he started thinking about it, the more unreasonable it seemed to chase after the redhead at all.

Gaara had after all told him to stay away and leave him alone. If he went against that he would probably just make things worse, something he absolutely did not want to do.

And perhaps, after given some time Gaara would calm down and get back in touch with him.

So yes, the best thing to do would be to stay put and let time have its course.

Amazing how something so reasonable and logic could seem so immensely stupid just a couple of days later. Just thinking about it made him want to punch himself in the face.

But it was too late now. Faith had screwed him over once again, robbing him on the person he cared for the most, all because of his own stupidity.

As if in agreement his abdomen let out another gnarl, louder this time and he felt his stomach clench slightly like in protest against its empty state.

For a moment he contemplated on getting up and getting something to eat, but immediately felt his energy drain even at the prospect of sitting up.

Instead he reached up and pulled one of his pillows down and placed it underneath his head, closing his eyes.

He would eat when he woke up. If he managed to fall asleep.

* * *

Trees rushed past them as they hurried through the woods.

Neji had his byakugan activated and was following the still warm trail of the ninjas from Sound and the familiar presence of Sasuke's chakra.

He still couldn't believe that the Uchiha had left with those guys. What was he thinking?

They had passed by a clearing a while back where there had been evident signs of a battle. Had Sasuke participated in that battle as well? And if so, on which side?

He glanced at Shikamaru that was keeping tracks with him on his right and then over to Naruto, Chouji and Kiba on his left.

Five people. That was it.

If only they had brought someone more experienced. Somehow one Chuunin and four Genins didn't seem enough and even though he had full confidence in Shikamaru's brain, he still didn't feel comfortable about not knowing the level of their enemies' power.

They were diving head first into this and he didn't like that one bit.

In the corner of his eye he saw Naruto speeding up his steps to end up side by side with him.

The blonde's eyes were stern and fixed up ahead, but Neji had more than a fair guess on what was going on inside the genin's head.

Sasuke had left without telling Naruto. Without as much as a good-bye.

The question of why must be ripping the blue-eyed boy apart from the inside and out, the feeling of being put aside, disregarded and ignored.

Sasuke and Naruto had been lovers and a couple in the sense of the word more than he and Gaara had ever been. The other shinobi's pain of being left behind must be so much worse than his own.

Tearing his eyes away from Naruto he looked forward again.

No matter the outcome, this was going to be a rough ride.

He just hoped they had come prepared...

* * *

It was dark. Somewhere in the distance he could hear voices calling.

There seemed to be a commotion of some sort around him, but he couldn't open his eyes to see what it was.

The sound of running feet and there was a smell to. Sterile, yet sharp like the stale smell of alcohol.

The hospital. That's where he had to be.

But... how did he and up here? What happened to Shikamaru and the others? And that spider-guy from Sound, did he beat him?

He tried to remember what had happened, but the more he struggled to grab hold of the images, the less coherent they became. Slowly the voices around him began to fade away as the darkness closed in around him yet again, leaving him drifting in a black sea of shadows and ominous whisperings.

He didn't know how long he was gone for, but suddenly the world flooded with light as he opened his eyes.

The room wasn't that bright as the sun seemed to have already set, but compared to the darkness he had just left it was on the brink of blinding.

He drew breath and winced when the cool air hit the dry walls of his throat, causing him to break out into a massive coughing fit.

"Would you keep it down? Some people are trying to get some sleep you know."

Neji looked over to the corner where the voice came from and spotted Shikamaru sitting slouched down in a chair by the door.

"Nara..." the effort of uttering the single name was enough to send him into a new wave of coughs, and Shikamaru got up from the chair with a loud sigh.

"How troublesome you are."

He walked over to a table by the window and poured some water from a pitcher into a cup and handed it to Neji who took it gratefully.

Shikamaru waited patiently until he had finished, he then took the cup, refilled it and gave it back before returning to his original seat.

"Where are the others?"

Shikamaru sighed, closing his eyes. Despite the dim light Neji noticed that the skin underneath his eyes where red and puffy, as if had been crying.

"They are alive." He answered. "Chouji just came out of surgery, they say that he'll probably be asleep for another day. Kiba and Akamaru are awake and Kiba have already started to argue with Tsunade about not needing to take his medicine."

Neji nodded and took another sip of water from the cup.

"And Naruto?"

Shikamaru opened one of his eyes and looked at him.

"That guy… He was probably worst off, but it's hard to tell since his wounds had already started to heal up when they brought him here."

Throwing his head back and braiding his fingers together behind his neck Shikamaru sunk deeper into the cushions. Neji looked down into the cup in his hands.

"Sasuke?"

Shikamaru shook his head, and Neji felt his heart sink.

"I know. It sucks doesn't it?" Shikamaru's voice sounded bitter. Neji could totally relate.

Standing up from the chair Shikamaru turned away, stretched his arms over his head and yawned. Neji was willing to bet anything that the other young man had tears in his eyes.

"Well, I have to go and write a report or Tsunade-sama will have my head."

"I see."

"You get some rest, and for god's sake if Tsunade wants you to take some medicine, just take it. Kiba's ears are still red from the words she used to tell him off."

The mental image of that conversation made the corner of his Neji's mouth tilt upward.

"I'll remember." He assured him.

Shikamaru reached for the handle and opened the door, stepping outside, but just as he was about to close it he seemed to remember something.

"Oh, and there was one thing. After we had set out from the village, Tsunade sent for help from the Sand. They arrived shortly after we had split up.

Neji's heart skipped a beat.

"Who did they send?" he asked, trying to sound as if the answer didn't really interest him.

"The three Sabaku-siblings."

The wringing sensation that slowly twisted his stomach was enough to make him feel nauseous, but he did his best trying to not let it show.

"Unfortunately they didn't get there in time to help you fight, but they notified the medics of your whereabouts before hurrying after us."

Neji didn't know what to feel. Gaara had been there? Standing next to his unconscious body?

How had he reacted? Sad? Angry? Happy that he was still alive?

Shikamaru seemed to notice that there was something that bothered him, but before he got the chance to ask what it was Neji cut him off.

"Where are they now?"

"They left this morning."

"Oh..."

"But Temari came by and asked about you. She wanted to make sure that you were okay."

Neji looked up, but Shikamaru had already turned towards the corridor again.

"I just thought that you wanted to know."

And with that he closed the door, leaving the young Hyuuga puzzled and confused about the information he had just received.

* * *

Neji landed with a silent thud by the clearing overlooking the ravine, his heart pounding away inside his chest and his head spinning with thoughts of the potential scene he might be faced with.

On the way there he and Hinata had used their byakugan to see that someone had been trapped inside a strange, metallic dome on the far side of the cliff and that this someone was rapidly getting their chakra sucked out of them and into the stranger floating in the air next to it.

Of course, he already knew who that someone inside the dome was.

He'd recognise that chakra anywhere.

As he formed the seals to his byakugan once more, Shikamaru emerged by his side, followed closely by Lee, Sakura, Chouji, Kankuro and Temari.

Naruto was lying with his back against the cliff wall looking pretty roughed up with who he assumed to be Gaara's kidnapped student by his side. In the corner of his eye Neji could see Sakura and Hinata hurry up to tend to the blonde's injuries, but at the moment his entire focus was on Gaara and the situation he was in.

Chakra was still flowing steadily into the armour the enemy was wearing... but there was something strange about it.

There was another power leaking in and merging with the familiar feel of Gaara's chakra, a bigger, greater and far more sinister power that increased rapidly with every passing second.

He was just about to turn to the others, telling him what he saw when a deafening bang almost threw him to the ground.

A cloud of dust covered the spot where the dome just stood and as the sand slowly subsided the silhouette of Gaara came into view.

Gaara and something else... something not human.

His posture was hunched together, revealing that the left side of his face and body had been deformed, taking on the appearance of the one-tailed demon Shukaku. The redhead's body shook and he appeared to be injured. Neji could hear the strained sound when he tried to breathe.

Instinctively he took a step forward, the sight of his former lover's condition being too unbearable to watch, but as he did he felt a firm hand splay over his chest, holding him back.

He looked to the side and saw Shikamaru looking at the scene below with a stern face.

"Don't interfere. We still don't know who's in control here."

Neji gritted his teeth, but stayed put. If the demon was in fact the one being in control none of them would want to get in it's way, but just standing here not doing anything to help was almost unendurable.

Shikamaru turned to Sakura who was trying to convince Naruto that he was too injured to fight anymore.

"Sakura, hurry it up. It looks like we don't have much time!"

Sakura nodded and grabbed Naruto's hand, using her chakra to heal the wounds that covered them.

Neji turned his eyes back to Gaara and the stranger and gave a loud gasp.

"What is this?"

"What's wrong, Neji?"

"There is still a powerful chakra flowing between the armour that this bastard is wearing and Gaara."

Naruto gritted his teeth.  
"That bastard! He stole Gaara's chakra!"

Neji furrowed his brow.

No, not Gaara's chakra... someone who held a far much greater power than that...

"So what do we do now?" he heard Shikamaru say. "The situation had developed in a direction that we had not anticipated at all. Fighting the enemy was one thing, but now if we have to fight the one-tail as well..."

Neji tore his eyes away from Gaara and the enemy.

"But what about Gaara? Won't he...?"

Shikamaru sighed and shook his head.

"There's no helping it. If he looses control of the demon we'll have to do what we can to stop it. No matter what it takes."

Neji clenched his fists. He knew that Shikamaru was right, of course he did, but... it was still Gaara... How was he supposed to bring himself to harm the person he cared for the most?

Then he heard Temari gasp and he looked up.

Slowly the demon's body that was covering Gaara's side began to crumble, turning into sand that fell to the ground in whispering cascades.

"What's happening to him?"

"He could be trying to suppress Shukaku with his own will."

Neji found himself holding his breath as the last grains of sand reached the ground and Gaara finally returned to normal.

A part of him wanted to sigh with relief, but the other reminded him that this wasn't over yet.

The armour-clad enemy was still hovering above the redhead, looking uncomfortably amused by the new turn of events.

All of a sudden the three tentacles that had been fanning out behind him shot forward, turning into spears, heading straight for Gaara who jumped backwards to dodge the attack, but not fast enough.

One of the tentacles ripped through his shoulder and the other one hit his side, tearing up a big wound through the rough fabric of his clothes and into the flesh.

Neji stared in horror as the sand-nin gripped his side and stumbled to keep himself standing upright, and he was mere seconds from throwing every single piece of instruction he had received about staying but aside and rush to his lovers aid when suddenly Gaara looked up at the enemy... and smiled.

Moments after Gaara stood up straight and brought his hands together, forming a tiger-seal in front of his chest.

"Ryuusa Bakuryu!"

The ground shook, huge cracks began to form across the high rock walls surrounding them and then the cliffs came tumbling down with a deafening roar, burying the enemy in a mighty avalanche of sand.

Neji would have been satisfied with that, but stiffened when he noticed that instead of subsiding after hitting the ground, the noise of the sand instead became louder, and he watched with a mix of aw and anxiety how a tidal wave of sand and rubble rose up in front of them, moving closer in a heartbreaking speed.

He heard Kankuro yell something behind him but he could barely make it out through the rumble. Shikamaru however seemed to have heard him and turned to Neji, pointing towards the cliffs behind them.

"We have to get higher! That sand wall's gonna bury us all!"

Not needing to hear that twice Neji and the others quickly made their way back the same way they had come until they reached a plateau too high up for the sand to reach.

Once the sand slowly came to a rest it had efficiently raised the ground of the low valley to more than twice its original height, burying the trees and vegetation completely.

Gaara, who had used a small patch of sand to elevate himself above the area slowly returned down and released the seal.

For the second time, Neji let out a relieved sigh.

Something that turned out to be a complete waist.

The compact soil in front of Gaara began to move, dust forming in thick swirls and Neji realised that the enemy was using the power of the armour to claw himself back up towards the surface! Neji could see the chakra that was being emitted through the ground with his byakugan.

"Sabaku Taisou!"

Driving his hands into the ground, Gaara let out a shockwave of chakra, letting the full force of his Desert Imperial Funeral form around and crush the enemy's body.

On Neji's left, Naruto let out a triumphant yell, but all too soon.

Although Gaara's attack was powerful, the fact was that not only had he been injured in a previous fight when chasing after the ones that kidnapped Matsuri, but he had also been having his chakra sucked out for quite some time now. One could assume that had he been faced with this person while holding his full strength the enemy would not have stood a chance.

Now, however it didn't take long after the rumble of the earth beneath had subsided that a dust of sand shot up and the white-haired shinobi once again appeared before them, fury glowing in his eyes and with a face contorted by rage.

"So you still had some power left." He growled mostly to himself. "I'll take all of that power then!"

The eyes of the beast-head adorning the armour's front plate suddenly gleamed and the stream of chakra that had been flowing from all this time Gaara suddenly increased in strength.

Neji felt his chest clench.

"Gaara's chakra is being sucked out!"

Naruto took a step forward, but Shikamaru stopped him.

"Wait, Naruto"

"What is it Shikamaru? Don't stop me!"

The blonde looked ready to ignore the other's order, but Temari stepped in between.

"Even if you go, you'll only be in the way." Her eyes drifted back to the scene below them.

"Besides, our Gaara is strong."

Neji wanted to agree with her, but Gaara was almost out of his own chakra. If he lost much more, Shukaku was sure to regain control. Gaara's strength of will could only do so much.

"Shikamaru... there isn't much time left. Gaara won't be able to old on much longer."

Shikamaru nodded.

"I know, but like Temari said, there's not much we can do without getting in the way... We have to put our faith in Gaara."

He placed his hand on Neji's shoulder.

"Trust him, Neji."

The silver-eyed teen glanced at him. Shikamaru absolutely knew more about his and Gaara's relation than he put on for show; Neji was sure of it, but for some reason that didn't bother him. Not like he had thought at least...

Next to Naruto, Matsuri gave a loud gasp.

"Gaara-sensei!"

Down below Gaara had raised his uninjured arm and as they watched sand began seeping in from all around, slowly forming a long spear with the one-tailed beast's signature pattern on the spearhead.

The enemy realised too soon what was coming and did a weak attempt to dodge, but too late.

Gaara brought his arm back and sent the spear soaring through the air, piercing the armour and the enemy with it.

The white-haired man gave a throaty gargle, his hands fruitlessly clawing at the long spear shaft.

It looked like he was saying something, but the distance was too great for Neji and the others to make out the words. Slowly he began sinking and inch by inch the sand swallowed him up until there was nothing left to see.

Gaara knelt to the ground for a second time and placed his hands on the soil in front of him.

"Sabaku Taisou!"

The entire plane of sand gave a loud rumble as the mass settled all at once, this time with force enough to grind the enemy's bones to dust.

And then it all went still.

That was until Naruto let out a triumphant yell and rushed forward, punching his fist through the air.

"You did it, Gaara!"

Gaara turned around, looking at the blonde that came running towards him closely followed by the others and it looked as if was about to say something, but then his eyes rolled back in his head and he collapsed on the ground.

Matsuri was the first to reach his limp body, closely followed by Naruto.

Neji watched as Sakura gently placed her hand over his throat, checking for a pulse, then she gave a relieved smile.

"He's fine. Just exhausted from using up to much chakra."

Even though Neji had seen with his byakugan that Gaara wasn't dead, he still felt the constriction loosen inside his chest when he heard the kunoichi give the all clear.

He looked down on Matsuri who had placed Gaara's head in her lap and was now gently brushing strands of fiery red hair away from his face and was overwhelmed with a sudden desire to switch places with her. Watching Gaara's brown-haired pupil cling to the person he loved like that gave him a sharp sting of jealousy, but he quickly shook it off. The girl had every right to care for Gaara, probably more than he did. After all, Gaara came here to save her.

She was important... to him...

Turning his head to look the other way, his heart suddenly heavy and cold inside his chest, he spotted two familiar silhouettes standing on a cliff overlooking the little crowd below.

The lankier of the two silhouettes raised his hand in greeting and Neji answered it quietly.

"It seems Tsunade decided to send us some back-up."

Shikamaru emerged by his side, following his gaze to the two white-haired men on the cliff.

"I just hope that Jiraya and Kakashi didn't look forward to a big fight, as it is all over now."

"Yeah... I guess so."

The other pony tailed boy gave a loud sigh.

"How troublesome you are."

Neji snapped his attention back to where he was and looked at Shikamaru.

"Excuse me?"

"You're being silly. I know you want to go over there, so just go. Nobody's going to chase you away."

Trying his best not to let his embarrassment show in his face Neji gave a low snort.

"I have no idea what you're talking about."

"I think you do, but if you want to be stubborn, then go ahead."

He looked back at the others and then he sighed again, folding his arms behind his head and closing his eyes.

"I guess we better take him back to Konoha with us and let Tsunade-sama have a look at him. Both he and his siblings could use the rest before they return to Sand anyway."

Neji almost made a comment on that last sentence, since he knew for a fact that Shikamaru would be more than pleased if only the female of the Sabaku siblings were to come back to Konoha with them, but he kept quiet, watching the other turn and walk away to greet Kakashi and Jiraya who were making their way down the hillside.

Sometimes, he thought, Shikamaru's intelligence could be a bit annoying.

Probably because he was right.

* * *

Gaara was breathing softly, his chest rising and sinking underneath the white linens of the hospital bed.

It was late evening and outside the closed curtains the sun was just about to set behind the great monument overlooking Konoha, painting the world in red and gold.

Tsunade-sama had administrated some medicine that would make the young boy's body recover faster. Even though he was a jinshuuriki, Gaara's body didn't recover form injury like Naruto's did. Probably because the Raccoon-demon thought too highly of himself to have honed any medical abilities.

At first, Temari and Kankuro had refused to leave the room, thinking that the demon would try to regain it's control over Gaara's body now that he was asleep, but after hours of staying by his side without as much as twitch in his fingers they decided that they should get something to eat at the very least before the day was over.

So now the room was quiet, the only thing being heard was the steady rhythm of Gaara's breath. Then the door slowly opened, flooding the floor with light for a brief moment before closing.

Steps sounded as a pair of feet walked up to the bed and then halted by its side.

Silence.

Silvery eyes graced the form underneath the covers, caressing the curves of the bared neck and then came to a rest upon the features of the pale face.

Hair mimicking the flares of the sun outside was swept in wispy strands across the brow, and the pale, aquatic eyes were closed.

Time passed. The sun slowly disappeared in the west and dusk settled, long shadows merging with the oncoming night.

Fingers reached out, but hesitated.

It hurt.

To feel that skin.

The brush of that breath.

The soft silk of sanguine hair...

It was unbearable.

So close.

So far away.

The hand dropped, the sound of footsteps moved away. The creak of the door opening, a momentary blindness before it closed anew.

Jade green eyes opened and looked at the wooden surface.

A deep intake of breath.

The smell of cinnamon and spices lingering in the air.

A fist closing underneath the covers.

A quiet whisper.

_Neji..._

_

* * *

_

Two of Naruto's Kagebunshins landed with a soft thump with Gaara's body in a tight grip between them.

Neji's heart did a light skip inside his chest, but then he saw the look on the two blondes' faces and it immediately sunk.

Something was wrong.

The two clones gently placed the Kazekage on the grass before disappearing in a subtle puff of smoke that instantly got dissolved by the soft breeze.

The long straws of grass surrounding them whispered in the wind, an ominous murmur spreading across the landscape like wildfire.

Neji's stomach clenched as his gaze fell on the Kazekage's face.

How could it look so peaceful?

Sakura slowly walked up and kneeled next to Gaara's body and gently placed a hand on his chest, closing her eyes.

When she opened them again, Neji would have given anything to hear her say that Gaara was just unconscious and that he would wake up soon, but instead she shook her head slowly.

"He's dead." She whispered.

It took a couple of seconds, but then it was as if someone had taken the sun out of the sky and ripped away the ground beneath his feet.

Everything around him was spinning and if Ten-ten hadn't chosen that exact moment to lean against his shoulder he would most certainly had toppled over.

Dead?

It didn't make any sense.

They were supposed to rescue him, that's why they had come here in the first place.

That's why they had fought their way through evil clones, akatsuki-members, explosions and imploding alternate dimensions, to save him.

If he was dead… no it couldn't be true, it just couldn't!

As if he would be able to prove nature wrong he let an almost defying bolt of chakra flow into his vision, bulging the veins by his temples, but it didn't give him anything but horrible, horrible affirmation.

There where no chakra streaming through the lifeless body in front of him. There was no pulse, no heartbeat, no nothing.

Gaara was dead.

He had to steady himself by grabbing hold of Ten-ten's shoulder, but the girl seemed to take it as a comforting gesture from his side rather than shock and buried her head in his shoulder, sobbing quietly.

Gaara was dead.

He was gone.

All of the anxiety and malaise he had felt up until that moment was suddenly gone. But the thick, sticky darkness that took its place was far worse.

So this was how it was going to end then?

He would never get the chance to tell him…how he... how sorry he was.

Never feel his touch. Hear his voice.

He was rudely ripped out of his thoughts when Naruto suddenly raised his voice next to him.

"Why?" the blonde said, not even trying to hold back the tears that were streaming down his face.

"Why did Gaara have to die like this?"

He fell to his knees, fisting the green grass between his fingers and tearing it from the ground.

"You just became the Kazekage!"

Chiyo-sama walked up to him and placed a hand on his shoulder, but Naruto shook it off, the movement causing salty tears fall from his cheek and onto the ground.

For some reason Neji couldn't help but to feel jealous at the sight of him.

Naruto had always worn his heart on his sleeve, being just as close to laughter as he was to tears, and nobody ever questioned the sincerity of his emotions.

Neji had never been able to do that.

His childhood had been all about hiding his true feelings from his uncle and the other members of the family main branch.

Not even after he discovered that his hatred had been all uncalled for had he been able to loosen the discipline he had applied upon his feelings.

To cry was something he considered unnatural, no to mention how unnatural everyone else would think it would be if he suddenly broke down in tears.

Not even now could he bring his eyes to water, even though the pain inside threatened to consume him.

Naruto was spilling is heart on the ground for everyone to see and here he was, with no emotions to show that the person he loved had just been torn out of his world.

Suddenly his attention got drawn away when old lady Chiyo walked past him and knelt down next to Gaara and firmly placed both her hands on top of his chest, not unlike the way Sakura had just did only this time, it wasn't with the purpose of examination.

Naruto snivelled and wiped the tears away from his cheeks.

"What is she doing?"

"She's bringing Gaara back to life", Sakura mumbled. Naruto blinked.

"Can she really do that?"

"It's a technique that only Elder Chiyo knows about."

The pink haired girl sounded almost sad as she spoke, and a suspicion began to grow in Neji's head.

_A technique as convenient as that can't possibly exist_, he thought to himself as he turned his head towards the old lady on the ground and activated his byakugan once more.

The clear blue energy of Chiyo's chakra streamed out from the old lady's hands and into the body beneath them, spreading slowly from the centre and out.

Neji's brow furrowed.

He didn't know much about the theory behind medical jutsus, but there was something about this one that he didn't like.

The way the chakra was spreading… This wasn't a healing form of jutsu, it was a transfer.

_And j__udging from that chakra flow... Most likely..._

_

* * *

_

Gaara was floating.

Or was he falling?

He didn't know for sure, but also couldn't find a reason to why the difference between the two would matter.

Everything around him was hidden in mist. There were figures drifting through the white swirls, but they where too vague for him to identify.

Why would he want to know what they were anyway?

Somehow it didn't seem to matter anymore…

A shape floated into his vision.

It was a hand.

_Who's hand is this? _He thought to himself. Or did he say it?

On a whim he reached out to touch it, but as he did the hand moved away.

He pulled his hand back and as if on command, the limb came floating back.

Gaara tried to grab it for a second time, but with the same evading result.

The hand seemed to mock him from the distance, but he couldn't figure out why he felt that way.

Then from somewhere outside his consciousness a thought came drifting in.

Furrowing his brow he slowly bent his fingers and watched the hand in front of him do the same.

_Oh._

The hand was his own.

He supposed that could be a good thing to know.

A movement in front of him caught his attention and he raised his head.

One of the figures had started to emerge from the blinding whiteness and as the fog slowly moved away it revealed a pair of feet, two legs, a torso and finally, a face.

Pale green eyes framed by fiery red hair were looking back at him through the haze.

Those eyes…. That nose…. That mouth…

_That's me…_

A soft breeze rustled the red strands of the Gaara in front of him, mimicking the movement of his own hair.

_That's me… who's existence someone else needed__... Why?... Why did I want to become like that? Why did I desire it so badly?_

The reflection in front of him suddenly began to shimmer, the edges and contours dissolving like a mirage in the dessert during mid-day.

Slowly, the apparition took form once new, revealing a pair of cobalt blue eyes and blonde, dishevelled hair.

_Ah, yes, he remembered now._

_To fight for the on__es important to him._

_To someday stand in front of this person as an equal. Naruto was it?_

_Yes, Uzumaki Naruto._

The reason to the life he had made for himself. The reason to why he had left his anger and resentment towards the world behind and started over, chasing after the boy from Konoha with all his might in the hopes of someday becoming his equal.

But had it been enough?

_Did I ever become important to anybody?_

As if it heard him, the vision faded, but this time it took longer for it to reassemble, as if it wanted to get every single detail right.

Up until that point, Gaara had been sure that nothing he would see would provoke any form of reaction from him other than mild surprise, but oh, was he mistaken.

He was sure that his heart hadn't beaten once since he had entered this place, but the overwhelming pain that suddenly struck his chest sure proved that is was still there.

_Neji_.

He didn't have to search his memory for that name, it came to him as clearly as the sight of the person standing in front of him and with the name came the memories he thought he had suppressed a long time ago.

They hit him like a sledgehammer right in the chest. Every touch, every intimate moment they had shared, the feeling of happiness he had felt back then, but just as quickly he found words being repeated in his head, words spoken in haste and anger that pierced his soul like a thousand blades. The expressions of aggravation and disgust that had covered Neji's face in his memories from that night turned into shock, sadness and confusion. Sentences and conversations slowly started to make sense in a way they hadn't before and all the distorted pieces of the puzzle suddenly fitted together.

It was all so clear now, why hadn't he seen it before?

_Shukaku. _

The demon that had been the cause of the bloodshed that had framed his life.

It was clear to him now that the words coming from that cursed mouth had been nothing but lies, but he had swallowed them all like a starving dog given scraps from a table.

He was sure that he was supposed to be feeling angry at the thought, but he didn't.

Instead he just felt a light flutter of sadness over the fact that now when he knew the truth he couldn't do anything about it.

The Neji in front of him would soon begin to fade away, along with the remaining pieces of his own existence that seemed to dwell here in this limbo between worlds.

He looked at those pale eyes that stared back at him with no trace of the emotions in those clear pools of starry waters that he remembered from before and as he watched, they slowly turned into mist.

_It would have been nice__…_ he thought as the last streams of smoke disappeared before his eyes, _to see him one more time._

He gazed into the nothingness before him. The mist seemed to be drawing closer now, wrapping itself around him like a thick blanket.

Surely, it would be over soon. He could feel something pulling at him from far away.

He looked down upon his body, half expecting it to be partially dissolved, but instead he found that he had now reversed into his five-year old self and when he raised his hand to look at them he found that they were both completely covered in blood.

The mist suddenly felt less comforting, growing heavier by the second and almost seemed to be trying to hold him down.

_Monster_…it seemed to whisper.

_Murderer__...!_

Screaming. Hundreds of people screaming in pain and terror around him, but he couldn't see them. Hatred surrounding him, suffocating him.

_**Killer!**_

_**Monster!**_

_Gaara!_

_**M**__**URDERER!**_

Someone was calling out his name, but he could barely make it out through the haze.

Tears were streaming down his cheeks and he could feel his heart bang away against his ribcage. It hurt so bad, but why could he suddenly feel pain again? Where was the lack of emotion from before? What was going on?

_Gaara!_

Suddenly something grasped tightly around his shoulder and roughly pulled him back, spinning him around and just like that, it was all gone and he was engulfed by the deepest blue skies…

* * *

It started with a slight twitch.

Neji disregarded it at first, thinking that finally, his eyes had begun to water and distorted his vision momentarily, but then he heard Sakura gasp loudly next to him.

Gaara's brow furrowed slightly and slowly his eyes began to open.

Naruto removed his hands from atop the boy's chest and reached out to grab hold of his shoulder instead.

"Gaara!"

The redhead stared blankly up at the sky above, as if he wasn't able to see it at all, but when Naruto's hand grasped his shoulder he blinked and drew a choked breath that instantly got followed by vicious coughing fit.

Neji watched Naruto help the disgruntled Kazekage into a sitting position, but he barely allowed himself to believe what he was actually looking at.

Moments ago Gaara had been dead and now he was as alive as anyone could be.

It was impossible, but what arguments could be had against the obvious fact that it was so?

He wasn't going to deny that he hadn't had much faith in Chiyo's technique, not because he doubted that it could be done, but because he didn't think that the woman had enough chakra left in her to see it trough to the end. But as if he had sensed his thoughts, Naruto had stepped forward and offered his assistance and from that point on, everything had developed so rapidly.

The chakra surge the two of them had created had taken up his attention so entirely that he hadn't even noticed when Kankuro, Temari and what surely must've been at least half of the ninja's from the Hidden Sand joined them, until many minutes later.

They had all been so quiet, but when Gaara began to cough a massive roar of cheering had broken out and from what Neji could tell it hadn't begun to subside yet.

Tenten was crying and laughing by his side, and somewhere in the back Lee and Guy were in the midst of a bone crushing hug mixed with tears of what he assumed to be youthful celebration, but to Neji it felt as if they were all miles away.

Gaara was alive.

He wasn't dead.

When that notion struck, it was as if someone suddenly had hit him over the head with a sledgehammer. Nausea kicked in and he felt his knees begin to wobble. He pulled his hand over his eyes and felt them get moist with tears he didn't realise he had shed.

By now Naruto had been kicked from Gaara's side by a pair of crazed fan girls who were now fighting over… well whatever fan girls usually fought about he guessed.

One of them suddenly threw herself around the redhead's neck and a slight ripple of jealousy momentarily crossed Neji's mind, but he quickly shook it of. Gaara was far too overwhelmed with what was going on right now that he wouldn't notice if an entire army of fan girls suddenly threw themselves at him.

Kankuro simply shook his head at his younger brother's sudden dilemma and walked up to Naruto, offering him a hand to stand up, saying something about how girls who were always drooling over the coolest guy's also were the most superficial ones as well.

Neji guessed he could have a point.

He turned back to look in Gaara's direction, but the redhead wasn't there anymore.

Suddenly the cheering stopped and everything went quiet.

Gaara had walked up to Sakura, who was sitting on the ground, holding Chiyo-baasama's lifeless body in her arms, crying silently.

Temari was standing next to her with a hand gently placed on the pink haired girl's shoulder for comfort, though Neji doubted that it did any good.

Naruto's eyes widened in shock when he realised what had just happened, but Gaara's face didn't' reveal anything about how he felt.

The setting sun's final rays reflected themselves in Sakura's tears before disappearing behind the horizon and Neji watched as the girl's grip loosened slightly around the old lady's body.

He had known what was going to happen once the jutsu had been completed, but even though it was with horrible insight he also realized that so did Elder Chiyo.

Gaara's life was Chiyo-baasama's legacy to the younger generations of both the Sand and the Leaf and, like a little selfish voice told him, to him.

And so it was, when the first star lit in the evening sky and Gaara led the people around into a moment of silence in honour of Elder Chiyo's memory, Neji felt the melancholy he had been carrying for the past three years fall off his shoulders.

Fate had dealt him a cruel hand in the past, but now through the elderly woman's sacrifice he felt like he had been given a new chance.

_And t__his time_, he thought, _I intend to use it right_…

* * *

**I **_**hate**_** copying scenes from movies and turn them into writing. I get so stuck in all the details and completely loose my creative self!**

**If you're still reading this and haven't given up on me just yet, I must say that I am extremely grateful and above all, very proud of you. **

**Brace yourselves for the next chapter; it's going to be a feisty reunion ;)**


	14. A Second Chance

**A Second Chance**

The celebrations in the Sand village lasted all night, even though none of the Konoha ninjas nor Gaara himself participated in the festivities, being all too tired from the events that had taken place throughout the day.

Neji who had been convinced that he wouldn't be able to get a moment of sleep even if he tried, found himself the next morning lying sprawled out on the bed in what could only be described as an extremely undignified posture for a Hyuuga, with one of his socks still partially covering his left foot and a wet stain of drool on his pillow as embarrassing evidence of how deep his sleep had been.

After a quick rendezvous with the shower he got himself dressed and ventured out into the corridor in pursuit of something edible.

Making his way down the stairs that led to the main floor and kitchen area he let his eyes study the architecture of the hallway he was in.

There were no windows in the walls, something he had found strange at first, but then he had realised that windows would allow the sun to shine in and raise the heat inside the building. They would also make it harder to keep the warmth when the sun set, letting too much of it back outside.

The entire Kazekage building would become an oven by day and a freezer by night, all in all a not too pleasant accommodation.

He made a momentary stop to orientate himself when the corridor branched out in two directions in front of him, but then he remembered and turned down the path on the right.

The Kage building was huge compared to the one in Konoha and definitely more difficult to navigate through, especially when as mentioned before, there were no windows.

The entire party from Konoha had been accommodated in the upper south wing upon their return to the village, even though both Kakashi and Guy had assured Gaara that a normal hotel would be perfectly sufficient. However, Neji could have told them from the start that their humble attempts to decline the offer were completely futile.

His lips curved in an amused smile at the thought.

Gaara had always been stubborn….

As he turned down the last passage to the kitchen a loud gnarl emitted from his stomach when the delicious aromas from various cookeries met his nostrils.

He wasn't sure if he should mention it to the others, but Neji had been indirectly informed that the south wing usually was especially reserved for members of the feudal aristocracy, high up council members and ambassadors from other countries that were temporarily visiting the Sand. Although he was almost certain that the two squad leader-jounins knew this already, the others would probably find the special treatment a bit awkward.

He barely had time to finish the thought when a loud yell from the other side of the kitchen door ripped through the air.

"What do you mean -'_have no ramen'_?"

Neji sighed and rolled his eyes to the ceiling.

Alright, so maybe not_ all_ of them.

He pushed the already partially opened door up and stepped inside the room, revealing a dishevelled Naruto running around opening every cupboard, box and drawer in sight, arms flailing desperately while an almost comically short head-chef looked on in mortified perplexity at the miniature hurricane that where currently massacring the order of his beloved kitchen.

"There has to be at least one box in here somewhere", Naruto mumbled to himself while poking his head into a cabinet he had gained access to by standing on the counter by one of the stoves.

Neji sighed, a sound that apparently caught the poor chef's attention because he whirled around while pointing to the blonde with an angry finger.

"Do you know this guy?" he demanded.

Before Neji was given the time to come up with an answer that wouldn't make the situation any worse than it already seemed to be, Naruto withdrew his head from the shelves and looked over his shoulder.

"Oh, hi Neji!"

He longhaired boy let out a mental groan.

"He's a friend of mine." he answered tiredly, knowing that nothing he said now could possibly save him. The tiny man in front of him, who didn't even reach him over the shoulder, immediately seemed to grow at least five feet taller and his moustache was litteraly shivering with restraint.

"Get him out of my kitchen this instant!"

"Actually, I just came to ask about breafa-…"

"No! No breakfast, just get out!

"But…"

"No! Out! Both of you, get out!"

With a little man who looked like he was ready to start throwing pots and pans at any moment at his tail, Neji marched up to the counter where Naruto was still squatting and pulled the other boy down by the hem of his collar with a rough tug. Naruto made a sort of squawking at the rough treatment but thankfully he didn't put up any resistance. Heading back to the door the duo was overwhelmed with forceful assistance from the chef in the form of shoves and litanies of examples of what would happen if they ever where to set foot in the kitchen again.

The odd pair barely had time to get all of their limbs out the doorway before the solid piece of wood closed behind them with a very loud "_And stay out_!".

Naruto glared at the door and grumbled something Neji suspected wasn't a compliment before turning towards Neji who met his eyes with chilled reprimanding and arms crossed over his chest.

As on instinct Naruto's left hand darted up and began scratching the back of his neck and a familiar sheepish grin formed on his face.

"Oops?" he asked.

"Oops." Neji confirmed.

Naruto looked back at the door where random pieces of the chef's ranting could be heard from the inside.

"Wanna eat out?"

Neji quirked an eyebrow at him and the blonde sourly added with slouching shoulders;

"My treat?"

Neji nodded.

"Your treat."

.

.

.

It wasn't much of a restaurant, more like a small food cart, but Neji had to admit that it was one of the best meals he had ever had.

Putting his chopsticks aside he shot a short glance to the left where Naruto just emptied his fifth bowl of ramen with a loud sigh. Count on Naruto to be the one to locate the only ramen-hut in a foreign village that were open for business this early in the morning.

Everyone had their natural talents he supposed.

Naruto stretched his arms over his head and yawned leisurely.

"Oh yeah, that's what I call breakfast!" he grinned. "Now I'll be able to hold my own until the party."

"Party?" Neji asked.

A blank expression layered itself over the blonde's face, but then he shone up.

"Oh, that's right, you haven't heard! The council members are throwing a party tonight to thank us for bringing Gaara back. You know; music, entertainment, lots and lots of food. That's why I went to the kitchen. I thought that if I could just find a cup of instant-ramen I wouldn't give the staff any extra work."

"Yeah, and we all know how marvellously well that went." Neji pointed out.

Naruto answered with a glare as he paid the woman behind the counter. Neji pretended like he didn't notice, but as the two turned down the street a curious thought entered his head and he turned towards the blonde.

"Who told you about this party? I didn't hear anyone talk about it last night."

"Gaara told me."

For a dreadful moment he thought his feet were going to trip on each other, but somehow he managed to keep them apart and walk normally.

"Gaara?" he said, trying to sound indifferent." I thought the medics had more or less locked him away so that he could rest his body in peace."

Naruto shrugged.

"I don't know anything about that. He sent for me just when I was about to fall asleep last night."

Even if Neji knew that it was a ridiculous and childish reaction he still couldn't help but to feel jealousy bubble up inside his chest.

Gaara had sent for Naruto, but refused to even look at Neji. For some reason the knowledge bothered him more than he wanted it to.

"I suppose he wanted to talk to someone after all that happened yesterday." He said, more to himself than to the other next to him.

"Not really." Naruto snorted. "You know Gaara, he's not much of a talker..."

Well, Neji couldn't argue with that.

"Speaking of…" Neji could feel a pair of investigating blue eyes look him up and down from the side. "While I was gone training all that time with Ero-sennin, did the two of you… talk? At all I mean?

"No."

Damn it, that sounded far worse than he had imagined it to. Naruto seemed to be taken a bit back by the answer as well.

"Not even once? Why not?"

Now it was Neji's time to shrug.

He didn't have an answer. At least not a god one.

"There wasn't any good time." He mumbled lamely, a comment that earned him a stern look from Naruto.

"That, Hyuuga Neji, is just a load of bull and you know it."

What did the moron expect him to say to that exactly? He wasn't going to confess that he had been too scared out of his wits from facing a possible rejection during the past three years to even look at the redhead, even less strike up a conversation with him.

However, judging by the penetrating eyebeam the blonde was currently blasting his way, he suspected that he didn't have to.

"You realize that you have to talk to each other before we leave, right?"

"The thought has crossed my mind."

Naruto ignored the hint of sarcasm in the brunette's voice.

"Tonight?" he coaxed.

"Maybe. If there's time."

"Oh, don't start with the time again!" Naruto huffed. "If you're planning to wait for the perfect moment I can tell you right now that you'll never talk to Gaara again for your entire life. There is no such thing as a 'right time'. Either you do it, or you don't, simple as that"

Neji suddenly stopped dead in his tracks and looked at the blond with his brow furrowed. It took the blonde a few more strides to realise that he was the only one moving and turned around with a confused look on his face.

"What?" he asked, sounding slightly annoyed.

Neji looked at him, an insight more than a suspicion slowly forming inside his head.

"You talked to Gaara about me, didn't you?"

There was a momentary silence and then Naruto nodded.

"Well, yeah. I asked him the same questions that I've asked you and he answered, nothing more. I haven't been playing relationship-councillor again if that's what you're asking." He added quickly when he saw Neji's jaw clench.

When any sort of response remained lacking Naruto sighed and threw his arms out.

"You see what I'm talking about? The two of you are so scared of talking that you panic and freak out at the very thought of even being mentioned to each other!"

"I'm not panicking." Neji objected, but without much flame.

"Oh really?" Naruto crossed his arms over his chest. "Then I suppose the fact that we'll be sitting by the same table as the Kazekage during dinner tonight won't phase you a bit?"

Neji felt as if the ground beneath him shifted slightly, but kept a stern face.

"Wow, how come?" he asked, trying to sound sarcastic, but it was as if the whiskered boy could see what was going on inside his head because his face immediately cracked open in a wide fox-grin.

"We are the guests of honour, so we get to sit by the main table together with the Kazekage and his family. But I suppose that if you ask real nicely they will let you sit in the hallway. That is if you don't think you'll be able to handle being around the guy you love for too long."

Love.

Now that was a word that hit home.

Neji's defensive posture faltered a bit and the ice in his eyes seemed to melt away.

Naruto shook his head at the older boy.

"You know what," he sighed. "For being considered such a genius, it's amazing how dense you can be sometimes."

Neji opened his mouth in protest, but when he saw the grin stretching across the other boy's face he clamped it shut again, feeling just as silly as he probably looked.

Naruto's grin grew if possible even wider and he snickered as he slowly shook his head.

"Honestly, the dilemmas between the two of you are going to be the death of me."

Neji didn't say anything, silently trying to regain the scattered pieces his dignity.

God, he hated it when other people were right...

.

.

.

Oh, come on, this was ridiculous!

He tore the pristine white tunic over his head and flung it over his shoulder where it landed on the bed in an undignified heap on top of a second one looking just like it.

What were the odds? For the first time in his life when he sincerely cared about his choice of attire, fate would have it that he had only packed two shirts, of which one had received a big tear in the fabric due to yesterday's battle and the other had gotten its back stained by some greasy substance from god knows where.

So here he was, standing in front of a mirror in a foreign country, with this big gala-like dinner less than two hours away, and he had absolutely nothing to wear.

_Absolutely fantastic._

He glared at the two shirts through the mirror and it was only because of sheer pride that he bit back a frustrated groan.

Look at him! He was acting like a little girl before a date. Gaara would probably be too busy to even notice him, so why should he bother?

Throwing tantrums about not having any clothes to wear was just so…

_Gay?_ His subconscious self helpfully suggested.

Neji sighed and closed his eyes, pinching the bridge of his nose.

Yes. Gay.

He didn't intend to revert into denial over that again simply because his nerves were playing tricks on him. So he was gay, fine, but that still didn't grant him the power to make clothes magically appear out of thin air.

He would probably be able to find someone who could either mend his torn tunic or wash the stain of the other and then no one at the party would notice.

Still… there would be members of the council and feudal families present tonight and if they were going to be representing Konoha it probably wasn't a bad idea to do so in proper clothing.

This meant that he was back where he started, with two useless shirts and no money to buy new ones.

Flopping down on the bed he couldn't help but feel sorry for himself. It just wasn't fair.

He closed his eyes and sighed, but he barely had time to relax before the door to his room was flung aside and Lee stuck his head in through the opening.

"There you are, we've been looking all over for you."

Neji gave him a sceptic look.

"And you didn't think about checking my room until now?"

His comment fell on def ears and before he had a chance of reacting, his green-clad team-mate had already pulled him off the bed and was hauling him towards the door.

"Wait a minute, I don't have any clothes!"

"Exactly" Lee agreed with his usual passion, but didn't stop pulling his arm. It was first then that Neji realised that the bowl-cut boy wasn't wearing his usual spandex of youthful doom, but a light green Tangzhuang-styled jacket with golden embroideries and when he shifted his body around to get the door Neji also noticed the image of a large golden tiger stretching across the back.

"That's a nice jacket," he said, momentarily forgetting that he had been dragged into the hallway wearing nothing but his trousers.

"You like it?" Lee's face shone up like the sun in July, as if he had just received he greatest compliment of all time. "I'm sure that if you ask, Moriko-san will be able to get you one as well."

"Who's Moriko-san?" Neji asked, feeling even more confused than before.

"The seamstress. She's helping us pick out clothes for tonight. She's really sweet, you'll like her."

Neji blinked. Seamstress? Clothes?

"I don't understand."

Lee threw him a glance over the shoulder.

"Didn't Naruto tell you? I thought the two of you talked it through this morning."

"He told me of a dinner, but nothing about picking out clothes and could you please let go of my arm now?"

"Oh, of course. Sorry." He released the limb with an apologetic smile before continuing. "The others are waiting down the hall. They have already gotten their outfits adjusted, you're the only one left." He suddenly looked at him, his eyes revealing that he just now realised that there were certain parts of Neji's usual attire that were missing.

"Where is your shirt?" he asked, making Neji want to roll his eyes towards the ceiling with resignation.

"Never mind," he sighed, walking past the energetic youth and continuing down the corridor.

At least he wouldn't have to worry about clothes anymore.

.

.

.

Calling the thing that was currently being held in the great hall for a party was according to Neji, a huge understatement.

A banquette was a far more appropriate word judging by the size and looks of it.

What must have been thousands of glass-lanterns were hanging down from the rounded ceiling above them, spreading a warm, golden light over the large space below.

Five large tables hade been placed in the middle of the room, their short sides turned towards the long side of the curved main table that had been placed along the back wall, much like the teeth of a comb. Every table had exquisite floral decorations, but how they could have found that many flowers in the middle of the scorching desert, Neji had no idea.

When the comrades from Konoha had entered the room earlier they had been greeted by deafening applause from the other guests, and after that they had all been more or less bombarded with questions of their mission of retrieving Gaara from the Akatsuki.

At first, they had all done their best to retell the story to the amazed crowd, but when Neji had been asked to explain how they had beaten the enemy-clones for the fiftieth time, he had shortened the story down considerably.

The only ones who still kept the enthusiasm going as if it was the first time the tale was told, was of course Guy-sensei and Lee. The two of them had even begun to illustrate the battle by playing out the whole scenery by them selves, enthusiastically cheered on by the astonished audience.

Neji pulled himself back into a nearby corner and watched the two males, both in different shades of green, move around a clearing in the room and dealing fake blows and kicks towards each other, while Guy-sensei's voice sang from withheld drama as the tale went on.

Personally, he didn't think that what they had done was that big of a deal, but apparently others were not of the same opinion, this whole event being proof of just that.

Reaching his hand up he absentmindedly adjusted the collar of his new outfit for what must have been the hundredth time since he first put it on.

Moriko-san had been able to find a traditional male kimono, much in the same style as the ones he had seen his uncle wear at formal occasions; however it was a bit too tight around the neck for his liking even though they had tried their best to let it out. The dark blue material was shiny, but not too silky and the sash around his waist was made out of a creamy white fabric. Personally he thought it all looked very elegant, an opinion that seemed to be shared by most of the females present in the room as well...

He glanced over at the head table where Gaara and Kankuro where talking silently with each other while looking down the middle table in front of them. Gaara's face was indecipherable as usual, but Kankuro was looking like he wanted to rip someone's head off.

Neji followed the older brother's look until it landed on a group of men that had settled down on the far end of the table. Their faces clearly showed that no matter who else were present in the room at the moment, they clearly thought themselves higher than them.

Especially one man, an old geezer with tiny, mean eyes and a dark grey beard that had been separated into two long braids that reached him to the waistline. He was wearing a mustard-coloured robe with black lapels and some sort of pointy hat in matching colour.

It was easy to see why the two Sabaku's didn't like him.

Neji himself didn't like him one bit.

When the time came to be seated for dinner, Neji found that he had been placed on the far left end, in-between Naruto and Ten-ten. Gaara and his siblings were naturally placed in the middle, with the two Konoha team leaders in either side and even though Neji would have liked to get closer to the other boy he silently thanked the fates for not being placed next to Guy or Lee.

He didn't have any time to see if Gaara had recognised his presence before the first plate of food was placed before him.

He had no idea what it was, but it looked and smelled delicious, however it also seemed to be covered in a thick shell of some sorts.

Glancing to his right he saw Kankuro pick up a small, curved fork and use it to bend open the lower part of the shell with a light crackling sound.

To his right, he also noticed Ten-ten do the same with hers.

Well, it didn't seem too difficult.

Boy, was he wrong.

Spending the next ten minutes trying to get inside the food on his plate without looking like a complete retard trying to wrestle a giant prawn with a piece of silverware he eventually let out a frustrated groan and pushed the plate away.

Ten-ten looked at him, trying her best to hide the smile playing in the corner of her mouth.

"Trouble?" she asked sweetly.

Neji shot her an annoyed look, but then his pride finally admitted defeat and he simply slid his plate over, allowing her to bend the shell open for him.

It turned out his first evaluation had been right; the food was delicious.

The appetizer came and went and soon after it was time for the main course of the evening.

Neji had never tasted anything like it. He also promised himself that he would never disturb the chef of Suna in his kitchen again if it meant that the food stayed half this good.

Throughout dinner he tried his best not to look at Gaara too much, but he soon found that this in particular was a very hard thing to do.

His red hair had grown since they last met. Of course, he knew that hair was inevitably bound to grow during three years of time, but for some reason the thought of Gaara changing was fascinating to him. It suited him though…

When dessert arrived it looked far too much like a work of art for Neji to be able to eat it without feeling bad, but he didn't have to think about his pending guilt because suddenly someone began tapping the edge of a glass, announcing a toast.

For the first time since the first plates had been carried into the room, Naruto looked up from the food.

"Oh god."

The contempt in his voice made Neji look up as well, only to see the custard-coloured guy from earlier stand up from his seat and facing the main table with his glass raised.

"Oh god what?" he asked.

Naruto tore his glare away from the man in the room who had inducted his speech with a heart-warming thank you to the Konoha ninja for saving Gaara from the claws of the Akatsuki and leaned in closer to the white-eyed boy, signing for Neji to do the same.

"Gaara told me about this guy." He whispered. "His name's Takeo Kaito. He's one of the feudal lords that make up the Wind's council. Apparently he was also one of the former Kazekage's greatest supporters."

"Gaara's father?"

"Yeah."

Neji looked over at the talking man.

"And apart from the attack on Konoha three years ago, we don't like him because…?"

Naruto's eyes turned a shade darker at the question.

"Gaara's dad tried to get Gaara killed when he was a kid, thinking he was too dangerous to be kept alive. Kaito was one of the council members who supported him, even though there were others who didn't want to lose the village's jinshuuriki."

Neji blinked.

Gaara's dad tried to kill his own son?

He had heard that the former Kage had been a very strict leader, but to assassinate your children? How could anyone be so heartless?

"Anyway," Naruto continued, in an even lower voice. "When Gaara was taken, and the council found out that it was the Akatsuki who had done it, that jerk didn't want to try and save him."

Neji almost choked on his breath.

"_What_?"

"You heard me. He told Kankuro and Temari that it would only be a waste of soldiers to go after the Akatsuki and that the one-tail was as good as lost. That the council should focus on electing a new Kazekage instead."

Neji glanced at the man in front of the table.

"So you're saying that he didn't care about Gaara's welfare at all then…"

Naruto shook his head.

"Not one bit. He saw Gaara as a weapon, not a person."

The blonde fisted his hand underneath the table so loud that Neji could hear his knuckles crackle.

"Had it been up to him he would have been fully satisfied with just dumping Gaara's body in the desert somewhere. The thought of it makes me sick."

Neji couldn't agree more.

He snuck a quick glance at Gaara, but the boy's face still didn't reveal anything about what he thought. His green eyes were fixed on the old geezer on the floor who had just begun to reach the end of his speech and were now talking about how no one could be happier that their Kazekage had returned safely than he was.

Naruto followed the Hyuuga's gaze and gave him a quick nudge in the side.

"You know, Gaara hasn't told anybody about the fact that he's not a jinshuuriki anymore."

Neji tore his eyes away and looked at the blonde who continued.

"The only ones who know that Gaara… you know… died, are we, Kankuro and Temari. The others just think that he got severely injured and that the demon is still intact."

"But that doesn't make any sense. He can't intend to keep it a secret forever can he?"

"No, of course not." Naruto look down on his plate where the partially devoured desert still resided.

"It's just that… I mean, the guy _died_ and then came back to life, you don't just bounce back from that. He will tell them all later, I'm sure, but right now he has to… recover. Those people are vultures, when they find out they'll be all over him and he doesn't need that right now. You get that right?"

Neji nodded.

Yeah, he could get that.

Suddenly he didn't feel like talking to Gaara now would be such a good idea. He would probably just be an inconvenience to him if he did with everything going on...

He didn't get much further in his thoughts until a sharp pain struck his shin underneath the table and made him hiss and glare angrily at the blonde boy who glared right back.

"Don't even think of it, Hyuuga. You're going to talk to him before we leave town and that's final. Gaara needs all the support he can get and I'm not going to let you chicken out again."

Neji opened his mouth to answer but was interrupted by a swarm of applause that broke out around them when Kaito finished his speech.

Reluctantly and mostly forced by etiquette the two boys clapped their hands a few times, but not a second more than they had to. Neji noticed that Gaara also applauded, but just like them without any overwhelming enthusiasm.

Neji picked up his spoon and dipped it into the exclusive glass bowl in front of him, but for some reason the desert didn't seem as appetizing as earlier.

Guilt bubbled inside his guts and spoiled whatever enjoyment the fancy food might have given him.

He hadn't really reflected over what Gaara's relation with the council while becoming Kazekage had been like. The fact that Gaara was a jinshuuriki was something that Neji himself had more or less forgotten, as he had with Naruto, but of course the same could not be expected from the rest of the world.

Most plausible would probably have been that Gaara had been chosen as Kage because it would give the council complete knowledge of his whereabouts, but also mainly because they were afraid of him.

Sabaku no Gaara was known as a blood crazed killer who held no compassion what so ever for other human beings. To oppose him probably seemed more hazardous to the council than letting him have his way.

Of course, the people of Suna had come to accept him and even love him as not only their Kazekage, but also as their friend, but to the council who were still doing the former Kazekage's bidding, Gaara was still a monster in need of strict control and surveillance.

Without the one-tails inside his body, Gaara was just another shinobi to them, and as such he could be very easily replaced… or disposed of.

The grip around his spoon tightened.

Gaara deserved to be Kazekage damn it! To think that those old farts sitting down the middle table would consider getting rid of him simply because they had lost the ability to use him as a weapon… the thought made him want to break something. A neck for example.

It just wasn't fair!

Somehow, he didn't remember when, he managed to eat half of the serving he had been given and he was more than thankful when the waiting staff came to take the plate away.

Dinner was over and the guest slowly began mingling with each other again, although in a far more composed manner than earlier.

Neji, however, stayed in his seat with Naruto by his side. He didn't want to risk bumping into Kaito somewhere on the floor. He didn't trust his feelings enough to engage in any sort of conversation with that man, or the council might suddenly find themselves one member short at their next gathering…

Many people came by to give Gaara their best wishes, since the redhead didn't show any intentions of leaving his place at the table, and Gaara responded politely to them all. Neji found that his voice had grown darker over the years. More husky, but at the same time softer and warmer, like the voice velvet would have if it could talk.

Neji liked that voice. It made him feel… well, just _feel_ in a way that he hadn't for years.

That sensation in the pit of his stomach as if something was pulling and urging him to move forward, to simply _do_ something!

Not really contemplating about what he was doing, he turned his head to the left and instantly, without any sort of warning, his insides filled with the flutter of a thousand butterflies.

Gaara's aquatic eyes were looking straight at him, deep bottomless pools of jade-coloured water that swallowed him up like a maelstrom. Neji could feel his palms get sweaty and how a suddenly familiar shudder travelled up his spine

And then, just like that, it was gone.

Gaara turned away and looked out over the crowd again, leaving Neji feeling both confused and horribly dismissed. What the hell was that look supposed to mean?

Feeling so stumped by the cold shoulder he had just received he kept watching as Gaara leaned over and whispered something to his older brother and then pushed his seat back, bowed lightly to Kakashi and Guy before leaving the table. Taking the other, longer way around he then passed right in front of Neji before he without any further ado left the room.

He don't know how long he spent just staring at the doorway which Gaara had disappeared through, but when he finally brought himself to tear his eyes away he found that Naruto was now resting his arm on the tabletop, leaning the blonde head in his hand and was giving him a straight-on look with one of his brows raised.

"Well?" he asked, sounding extremely curious.

"Well what?" Neji answered, trying to fight the embracement of being caught staring.

"Aren't you going to follow him? It's obvious that he wants you to."

Neji felt his cheeks heat up and opened his mouth to give the blonde a snappy comment, but Naruto's eyes just glistened mirthfully as he intercepted him.

"Get your ass into gear, Hyuuga. The night may be young, but I don't think you want to spend the rest of it here."

Neji glared but clamped his mouth shut.

God, he hated it when other people were right!

.

.

.

Stepping out of the great hall he forced himself to slow his feet down in order not to draw attention to himself, but apparently he must have failed, because he had not taken more than ten steps before he heard something rustle behind him.

"Hey, you."

_Damn it_.

Biting back the curse that threatened to escape his mouth he turned around and saw Temari leaning against the doorpost he had just passed. She had a very serious look on her face and gestured for him to come closer. As he did she simply turned around and started walking down the other way of the hall.

"Come with me." She ordered.

Neji threw a regretful glance over his shoulder towards the way he had intended to go, but then he sighed and did as he was told.

Gaara's sister had a famous reputation of having a short fuse, and from what he had been told by Shikamaru back home, that was a fuse better left unlit.

They walked down the corridor, went down a couple of stairs, making a turn here and going through a doorway there until Neji had absolutely no idea of where they were anymore.

He was jus about to break the silence by asking if there was a point to all this zigzagging, but before he had the time Temari opened up a door and revealed a stoned path leading out into one of the most amazing gardens Neji had ever seen.

Suddenly the source of the flower arrangements upstairs became a lot clearer.

Temari gestured for him to go ahead and then she closed the door tightly behind them before turning towards him again.

"I know who you are." She stated firmly, causing Neji's brow to twitch. Was that supposed to sound intimidating?

"You're the guy who fucked up my brother." She continued, her glare suddenly growing cold.

Alright, so maybe it was a bit intimidating…

He waited to see if there was more to come, but when all he got was a firm stare, not too unlike that Gaara used to give him, he decided to voice his perplexity.

"You brought me all the way just to tell me that?" he asked, trying not to sound condescending.

"Upstairs is crawling with council spies. I'm going to assume that you know about my brother's condition and how that affects his relationship with some of the council members."

Neji nodded, even though the words had been more of a statement than a question.

Temari turned her back against him and began walking down the path, and Neji obediently followed, not too sure about what he had to expect.

"I'm a wind-type ninja, as you know." The girl continued. "Out here it's easier for me to control the direction of the air. Even if a spy followed us all the way here, he won't be able to hear a thing we're saying unless he's standing right on top of us."

Neji found himself nodding like a school boy, even though Temari still had her back turned towards him. That explanation made a lot of sense… somehow.

He was tempted to use his byakugan to see if he could detect the girl's chakra-flow in the air, but he refrained from it for now.

Temari had brought him here to talk, so it would be best to let her do just that before he attempted anything more sudden than scratch his nose.

The night air was chilly, but not cold. The lingering heat from the sun was still rising up from the sand. In a few more hours the temperature would have dropped considerably, but right now it was actually quite pleasant.

"I know that you and Gaara got very close all those years ago." Temari suddenly said. "He stayed behind to be with you after the Chuunin exams instead of coming home with me and Kankuro. You must've been very special."

Neji didn't know if he should feel flattered or threatened by that.

Temari sighed, and for a second some of her hostility seemed to melt.

"Now, I don't need or want to know what happened between you two, or even why Gaara came back so suddenly, acting like a kicked dog licking its wounds."

That remark, however, was designed to evoke massive guilt. And oh, did it work.

Temari looked at him, apparently satisfied with the response she got.

"Gaara cares for you." She said, once again gaining his attention when a hint of steel snuck into her voice. "I don't know how I should feel about the fact that you're back here since you've apparently managed to break his heart once already..."

She paused, as if what he wanted to say next was very hard to put in words.

"But I love my brother. And if being with you makes him happy then…"

Relief slowly dared its way back into Neji's mind, but then Temari took a step closer and hit him square in the chest with a very hard index finger.

"But you get this straight; if you hurt my brother again, I promise you that there's not going to be a hole deep enough in this entire world where you will be able to hide from me, is that clear?"

Neji looked down at the digit prodding at his torso and then down at the other fist she held clenched by her side before meeting her eyes again.

"Like glass." He said calmly.

"Tch."

The blonde girl removed her finger with a huff and Neji failed to hold back a smile, something Temari noticed and sent a glare his way.

"What's so funny?" she asked.

Neji shook his head.

"It's nothing. I just think I've realised the reason to why he likes you so much."

Temari's brow furrowed for a second, but then she caught on and a light blush slowly crept onto her cheek. Neji's smile grew wider.

"You know, you should stop by some time again soon. He gets all kinds of cranky when you've been away for too long."

For a moment he feared that he had crossed the line with that one, but then Temari's lips curved into a light snicker.

"I guess it's been a while since my last visit. It would be to neglect my duties as ambassador if I didn't pay Konoha some attention once in a while."

"My thoughts exactly."

A soft breeze rustled the vegetation around them and Neji couldn't help but to shudder from the sudden chill.

"You know…" Temari said slowly. "I don't know what happened that summer in Konoha, but something back then made Gaara change. And it may sound cruel considering how much it hurt him, but without that change he would never have gotten this far."

She looked up at the moon that was hovering above them in the sky and sighed.

"Can I trust you, Neji?"

"Yes."

She glanced at him, perhaps thinking that his answer had been just a bit too quick, but then she turned her eyes back at the sky.

"Then I think it's about time you went to see the Kazekage. He has waited long enough, don't you think?"

Neji couldn't agree more.

Bowing respectfully he turned around and headed back the way they came, leaving the older girl alone to gaze thoughtfully at the full moon above.

.

.

.

It had been a pain, but finally he had managed to find his way to the Kazekage's office.

He had tried his best to keep his feet from running on the way over, but now that he was here, finally standing outside the solid wooden door that separated him from the person he loved, he couldn't bring himself to knock.

Three years of waiting, all coming down to this moment.

Was he really going to do this?

What if Gaara didn't even want to see him?

Neji wasn't even sure about if Gaara was in here. It was an office after all. He should have gone to Gaara's private quarters instead; it seemed a whole lot more logic than coming here in the middle of the night.

Still, something in Neji's gut told him that doing what seemed logic right now would be wrong. Gaara was behind this door, he could feel it. Maybe even waiting for him to come inside.

Was he really going to do this?

An image of Gaara's pale face, lifeless and cold in the setting sun flashed through his mind and he resolutely fisted his hands.

Yes... Yes he was.

The knock was louder than he had intended it to be, and it boomed through the empty stone corridor in a way that almost made it feel as if he had desecrated a tomb.

Holding his breath, he waited. Seconds passed, one by one without any response from the other side, but just as he was about to conclude that the office was indeed empty, Gaara's muffled voice came drifting through the door.

"Come in."

Ignoring the close to painful knot his abdomen made at the sound of that voice, he pushed the handle down and stepped inside.

Gaara was sitting behind his desk, holding a pen in his left hand and writing something on a paper. He didn't look up when Neji entered the room.

Neji came to halt a few feet away from the desk, not sure about if he should say something, or if he should let Gaara finish what he was doing first, so he simply stood there.

The room was dimly lit, but Neji could smell newly burnt out candles, so he guessed that the room had been a lot lighter only a few moments ago.

None of them uttered a word, the scribble of Gaara's pen being the only thing breaking the silence along with Neji's own heartbeat pounding away inside his ears.

Minutes passed, there was no telling how many, but suddenly the pencil stopped moving and the room fell silent.

"Aren't you going to say anything?" Gaara asked, without letting the tone of his voice reveal if he knew that he was talking to Neji or to someone else.

Neji swallowed, his mouth suddenly gone bone-dry.

"I could ask you the same thing." He said lowly.

"You came to my office." Gaara countered, still with the same tone.

Undeniably true. As always.

"I came to see how you were doing. You left the banquet so early, people got worried."

That was of course a white lie, the 'people' in this case, being Neji himself.

"I'm fine. I had things to take care of."

Neji didn't know what he had expected for an answer, but perhaps something a tad bit more heartfelt than that.

"Oh…" he said, not able to come up with anything better to say.

The lights on Gaara's desk flickered softly, casting tall shadows on the walls.

"Was there anything else?" Stern and cold. The mere tone hit Neji like a slap in the face.

"Well, I…"

"Because if you don't mind, I have work to do."

Dismissed, just like that.

"But I…"

"Good night."

Relentless.

The sound of ink against paper resumed, a deafening scraping sound that seemed to fill the room with an ominous gloom.

Neji didn't know what to say, much less what to do.

This is how his three years of waiting was going to end?

His body felt numb, frozen by the ice in Gaara's voice and while not being able to move as much as a step from the spot he was currently standing in, as if his feet had been nailed to the floor with six inch spikes, Neji felt his heart sink.

Had Gaara come to really hate him that much?

The Kazekage's green eyes were barely noticeable in the dusk, but when the sounds of the door opening and closing were left out, they rose from the paper, giving him a blank stare.

"Are you still here?"

The pain that had stabbed Neji's chest like a knife just moments earlier instantly flared up and turned into heated defiance.

He might love Gaara with all of his body and soul, but just who the hell did he think he was?

Here Neji had risked pride and heartbreak by coming to see him and the only thing he got in return was being ordered around like some kind of servant!

Something in his stance must have shown his sudden change of attitude, because Gaara stopped writing and glared at him.

"I think you should leave now." He said firmly.

_I bet you do…_ Neji thought, but remained silent in his place - something that caused a displeased scowl to form on the Kazekage's brow.

"Get out."

"No."

When the other didn't comply Gaara put the pen down and stood up from his seat.

"Get. Out." He growled.

Neji frowned.

Something in Gaara's movements were not right. They were too… reluctant, as if he would have preferred to remain seated.

"No" he repeated, taking a step forward, intentionally provoking the other teen behind the table.

Gaara was giving him a full hearted glare, but wasn't there something else flickering in those eyes as well? Like nervousness, or… fear?

"I'm warning you, Hyuuga."

Tensed desperation sneaking into his voice. Something was definitely wrong here, but Neji couldn't put his finger on what it could be.

Why was Gaara so eager to see him leave?

Planting his feet firmly onto the floor he met Gaara's eyes with calm resolve.

"I'm not going anywhere." He said, challenging the other boy to do something. Anything.

Gaara's chest was rising and sinking with frustration and it was apparent that he was having a mental struggle with himself on what to do next, fuelling Neji's suspicions even further. Gaara never allowed his feelings to show so evidently, why had he lost his cool now?

The tension in the room was thick enough to touch, like a thunderstorm waiting to release its first lightning.

Then Gaara suddenly straightened up, eyes cold and harsh like frozen pools of water.

"Then stay." He snapped.

And with that he made his way around the table and began heading for the door.

Neji couldn't believe what he was witnessing. The great Kazekage of the Sand was running away?

_Oh no, you don't…_

Neji quickly backed up and placed himself in front of the door, efficiently blocking the only way out, something that Gaara did not approve of.

"Get out of my way, Hyuuga."

"No."

"I said move."

"First you're going to talk to me."

"Let me out or I'll-…"

"Or you'll what?" Neji cut him off, meeting the eyes of the fuming sand-nin head on.

Gaara gritted his teeth, the resemblance of a trapped animal now far too evident to be ignored.

Then he suddenly reached out for the handle, trying to press his way past the hindrance in his way, but Neji was quicker and intercepted him by grabbing hold of the arm.

He had expected Gaara to put up a fight, or at least struggle a bit, but what happened when his fingers clasped around the white-clad limb was something he had not foreseen.

Gaara gave a loud hiss and quickly pulled his arm back tightly against his body, grasping the wrist with his left hand. The action caught Neji completely off guard and when he saw the way Gaara shielded himself he got seriously concerned.

"What's wrong?" he asked, trying to get a better look of the hand, but Gaara turned away.

"It's nothing."

"You didn't act like its nothing. What happened?"

"None of your business!"

"Don't be ridiculous, let me see." He reached out his hand towards the other boy, but Gaara quickly stepped back.

"Don't touch me!" he spat, gritting his teeth.

Neji halted himself, feeling anger rise in his chest once more.

_Enough of this! _

Gaara might have been a ninja, and even Kazekage, but Neji was a Gentle Fist-user and when it came to speed, his hands were undefeated.

Before Gaara could react, or even comprehend what he was about to do, Neji's hand had darted out and caught his arm in an iron grip. Gaara winced and tried to pull the arm back, but it was no use.

In a flash of insight, Neji realised exactly what it was that had seemed so wrong from the moment he had entered the room, what had been demanding such unyielding attention from the back of his head.

"You're right handed," he noted "so why were you writing with your left hand?"

"Let go!"

"No."

Gaara growled and made a throw to the left, hissing through his teeth when the sudden movement made Neji's fingers dig deeper into his arm.

"Why were you writing with your left hand, Gaara?"

"Let _go_!"

_Riiip!_

With a sound that made Neji want to gnash his teeth, the hem of Gaara's white Kazekage robes tore and Gaara was free, stumbling backwards until his back hit the desk, once again with his wrist in a tight grip and a painful grimace on his face while Neji found himself standing with only a piece of cloth now in his hand.

"Gaara, are you all right?" he gasped, not having intended to cause the other boy any harm but Gaara didn't answer him, he simply shook his head sharply while sucking in air through gritted teeth.

Neji felt like a complete ass. Of course Gaara hadn't recovered from his fight with that Akatsuki-guy yet; he was bound to experience some pain still. He shouldn't have let himself overreact like that because of something that was probably just some stupid muscle-strain in the arm. He hadn't intended to wring his wrist or harm him in any way, but when Gaara thrashed around as he did... He looked down on the ripped fabric in his hand, searching for words.

"Gaara, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to…"

His sentence trailed of, leaving his mouth hanging open while he stared down onto his hand.

On the crimson fluid smeared out over snow-white threads…

Elevating his gaze he found that Gaara's eyes were also focused on the blood staining Neji's hand, looking like he had just been caught in the midst of doing something very shameful.

"What is this?" Neji held out his hand, displaying the wet shred in his palm.

Gaara didn't reply, but his green eyes quickly darted to the floor, causing horrified insight to dawn in Neji's mind.

"Gaara, what have you done?"

"It's nothing."

"Nothing? How can you say that it's 'nothing' - you're bleeding!"

"I said it's nothing!"

Neji took a step forward.

"Let me see." he demanded, to which Gaara responded by taking another step back.

"It's just a mistake."

Neji barely held back a disbelieving snort.

"A _mistake_? What do you mean it's a 'mistake'?"

Gaara was clutching the arm against his chest again, making his was back behind the desk, but this time Neji followed him.

"It was an accident." Gaara insisted, suddenly switching from aggressive to defensive in the middle of a step.

This made the long haired shinobi halt.

"Accident?" he asked. "Are you saying you did that yourself?"

"It's not like I meant to!" Gaara spat. "My hand just slipped, all right?"

"Do you think I'm stupid?" Neji didn't know if should be screaming or laughing.

"If it really was an accident, shouldn't you at least have tried to get some help? Instead you just sat here and when you heard the knock on the door you dimmed the lights down and pretended to work so that whoever walked in wouldn't notice that you were injured!"

The fact that Gaara had tried to hide his condition made Neji's anger grow even stronger. What the hell was he thinking?

"Why the fuck are you slitting your wrists for?" he yelled, "Are you trying to kill yourself, is that it?"

"No!"

"Then what the hell do you think you're doing!"

Neji was furious, and even more so when instead of answering, Gaara turned his eyes away and put on a face of secretive reservation.

"You wouldn't understand." He mumbled.

Neji suppressed an intense urge to punch his fist into the wall.

"You know what? You're absolutely right." He snarled. "I don't understand. I don't _understand_ why you are sitting here, cooped up in your office and slashing your wrists open while the people who put their life on the line for you are still downstairs, celebrating the fact that you are _alive_!"

He glowered at Gaara, who still wasn't looking at him.

"So why don't you go ahead and explain it to me? Tell me why you chose to repay them all like this?"

"I wasn't trying to kill myself." Gaara grumbled.

"Then what the hell where you doing?"

"I told you, you wouldn't understand!"

"Understand _what_? That you enjoy the feeling of blood leaving your body?"

"No!"

"Then _why_?"

"_Because I had to make sure_!"

The sudden aggression in Gaara's voice left Neji stumped, still standing with his fist closed tightly around the soiled patch in his hand.

Another candle went out with a faint _poof_ which was heard clearly in the silent room.

On Gaara's injured wrist a red stain had begun to bloom, rapidly seeping into the white fabric and spreading bigger. Neji found that looking at that stain was even harder than meeting Gaara's gaze, the expression on the red-head's face bearing clear witness about the fact that this was something the Kazekage had preferred not to tell anyone.

"I had to make sure..." he repeated, more to himself than to Neji who was standing dumbstruck before him.

Make sure of what? That he could bleed?

"I don't understand." Neji found that he was suddenly talking very silently, as if raising his voice would break the fragile stillness that had layered itself over the room.

"What did you have to make sure of?"

Gaara's eyes darted up to meat with his, as if evaluating the risk of Neji freaking out again.

"That it was really gone."

He must have seen that Neji didn't have a clue of what he was talking about, because he sighed and sank down into the chair, grimacing lightly when his elbow brushed against the arm rest.

He was quiet for a while, contemplating on what to say, but when he began talking his voice was firm and secure.

"Did you know, that apart from your energetic team mate and that Uchiha-kid, the Akatsuki-member who attacked me was the first one to break through my ultimate defence?"

Neji was about to answer that no, he didn't, but Gaara didn't give him any time.

"Doing so is very difficult," he continued "since the sand seams to have a mind of its own, not having to wait for me to react before it shields me. You've seen it yourself." He looked at Neji with steady, green eyes.

"Do you know why that is?"

To be honest, Neji had a hunch, but he decided not to voice it so instead he simply shook his head in response, making Gaara sigh.

"Because, it isn't _my_ ultimate defence. It is simply Shukaku caring for his own safety." He explained sourly, a bitter undertone sneaking itself into his voice.

"The one-tail doesn't want anything hurting its vessel… not even the vessel itself."

Neji's ears perked up.

Gaara looked down on his arm and slowly removed the remaining sleeve of his robe, revealing a bloodied hand and then a wrist.

From the base at the back of the hand and about three inches up, underneath some sort of makeshift bandage that had already begun to loosen, stretched a deep wound that looked like it had been caused by something very sharp. As he shifted the limb, Neji's eyes caught the faint whiteness of blood-covered bone glowering back at him. Gaara raised his hand and absentmindedly ran his fingers along the edge of the gaping sore.

"I've never been able to hurt myself before."

The way he said that made Neji's heart clench. It didn't take much to realise the meaning behind those words, and the insight they brought drained all of the anger Neji might have had left.

He had to lean back against the desk for support when clarity hit his emotionally exhausted brain.

"You never tried to kill yourself... You just wanted to see if you could."

Gaara looked at the bloodied stain on the front of his robe.

"I guess I overdid it though."

This time Neji couldn't help but smile.

The situation had evolved into something so indescribably macabre in comparison to what he had expected that he didn't have the strength to even care if Gaara had intended the comment as a joke or not. However, that wound looked like it could use some treatment.

He reached out his hand.

"Let me have a look at that for you."

At first Gaara looked hesitant, but then he slowly offered Neji the poorly bandaged limb.

Careful not to accidentally upset the wound further, Neji began to unwind the raggedly put together bandage. It looked like it had been shredded from a bigger piece of fabric with long threads sticking out from the uneven cut strips.

"Where did you get this anyway?" he asked, revealing the last patch of blood-smeared skin.

Gaara answered by simply turning his head to the side, towards the large glass door leading out to the balcony. Following his gaze Neji noticed that the white curtain that had been shielded from view by the desk earlier, turned out to be about three inches shorter than its twin on the other side of the door.

"I see."

Returning to the arm Neji quickly learned that the injury had looked worse than it actually was. Sure, the bone was exposed but the bleeding had already begun to subside, so apparently no major arteries had been damaged.

"Well, the wound seems to have cleanly cut edges." He sighed. "It will heal up nicely once you get some medical attention. However…"

He nodded towards the massacred curtains.

"You don't care too much about those, right?"

"Not really."

A few seconds later Neji had torn the remaining fabric down from the window and returned to his place.

"We'll need to cut it… properly this time." He said, to which Gaara reached over and pulled out the desk drawer, revealing a kunai. Neji picked it up and noticed small stripes of red covering the blade, as if it had been hastily cleaned before confined into the dark box.

"This is what you used?" Neji asked.  
"Yes."

Noticing the hint of embarrassment in Gaara's voice, Neji quickly dropped the subject and went on with cutting the curtain into adequate pieces to use as band aids, and then took a light grip of Gaara's arm and began wrapping the white strips around it.

Gaara's skin was warm underneath his touch and as he worked the redhead leaned forward in order to see better, causing a ghosting of breath to run over his left ear, threatening to make him loose his concentration on the job at hand.

The silence was back, but this time it felt different. The hostility was gone now, replaced by a tender softness much alike that of the flickering candlelight around them.

Neji felt like he could have stayed there, feeling the touch of Gaara's skin underneath his fingertips forever.

Maybe he was letting his thoughts drift a bit too far, because Gaara flinched and hissed silently when Neji tugged the bandage a bit harder than he had intended.

"My bad." He pardoned, loosening the fabric.

"It's okay."

Neji dared a glance at Gaara's face, but Gaara was still having his eyes fixed on the work of his hands.

_Poof…_

Another candle flickered and died next to them, making the room grow another shade darker.

The remaining dim light was warm, the soft glow casting comforting shadows that wrapped itself around them like a blanket.

"Did you know…" Gaara's voice was barely a whisper in the dusk. "That last night was the first time in sixteen years that I voluntarily slept through an entire night?"

Neji looked up.

"It's true," Gaara continued. "That's why I have these." He reached up and brushed against the dark rings underneath his eyes.

"When you have insomnia, you're never fully awake, but you're never fully asleep either."

Neji's hands slowed down, his attention refocusing on the words coming out of Gaara's mouth, but Gaara didn't seem to notice.

"When I sleep…" he halted himself, as if he just realised something important.

"When I used to sleep," he corrected, "my body was left wide open for the one-tails to control. People got hurt. Even killed. So I stopped sleeping, but… the line between the monster and myself grew thinner and thinner for each day."

_Poof…._

Neji hade tied the last strip of bandage around Gaara's arm, but he had not released it yet. He was sitting hunched down on the floor next to Gaara's chair, listening intently while the other boy talked.

Gaara was staring out into the air in front of him, his mind lost in memory.

"Sometimes I would fall asleep, no matter how hard I tried. When I woke up he would tell me of all the things he had made me do, of all the people I had hurt. Sometimes I would even remember it, like vague images from a dream…"

Absentmindedly his fingers drifted down and stroked the newly laid bandages.

"I tried to cut it out, thinking that since he craved blood so badly I simply had to remove that and he would go away… but he never let me."

_Poof…_

"People feared me. My father hated me so much that he ordered my assassination and the person I trusted more than anyone was the one who offered himself to do it. He told me that I was important to him, that he loved me…"

Gaara's hand clenched tightly, forming a fist.

"He lied."

_Poof…_

"Shukaku was the only one who talked to me, the only one who couldn't run. He turned me into the monster I had tried so hard to keep out, but he was always there. He always told me what to do, he always helped me. Being that voice in the back of your head that you turn to for guidance. Always present. Serving his own purposes, using me and manipulating me to do the things he wanted me to do, of course, but… at least I wasn't alone."

_Poof…_

_Poof…_

Two more candles went out, leaving only one still burning bravely on the desk, defying the darkness like a beacon in a starless night.

Gaara's voice was low when he continued, his face now completely cloaked in darkness.

"When the Akatsuki extracted the one-tails from my body… The only thing existing in my head wasn't that if they succeeded, I would die, but that I would be alone. I know that the demon was evil and that if it could it would have killed me on the spot, but… it still feels like a piece of my soul has been torn out and now there's nothing left but a gaping hole."

_Poof…_

"When I woke up this morning there was no mocking voice screaming in the back of my head. No sarcasm, no threats, nothing. I've gone through an entire day that only has me in it feels so _wrong_."

The room was dark now, with no more candles to pierce through the shadows. Neji could smell the smoke from the last extinguished flame in the air, but right now the absence of light was the last thing on his mind. The hand in his had begun to shake, a violent tremor that travelled through the frame of the suddenly fragile body in front of him.

"I've never hated anything more than I hated him, but still, I find myself hoping that he isn't really gone. That the moment I give in and believe it he'll come back, laughing at me for being so stupid, but he doesn't. He's never coming back, never and I can't… I just can't…!" Gaara's voice cracked - a heartbreakingly devastated sound that cut Neji to the very core. The Kazekage of the Sand was sitting in front of him, shaking like a leaf and grasping his hand as if it was his last lifeline.

"I've always been alone, but not like this… this is…!"

Something wet splashed against the back of Neji's hand, making him flinch ever so lightly, but by the time the same sensation was repeated and continued to trickle down his wrist he had come to the realisation that it was tears.

Gaara was crying, so silently in the darkness that all Neji heard was the low heaving of breath when the other boy struggled to catch his breath.

"I'm all alone in my head and I don't know what to do!"

Neji's answer was pure instinct and before he knew what he was about to do himself, he had reached up and pulled the crying youngster down from the chair and wrapped his arms around the quivering body.

At first he expected Gaara to struggle against the rough treatment, but to his surprise and relief Gaara simply sunk into his arms, pressing the forehead against his silk clad shoulder.

He had no idea of how long they sat there, or when Gaara's close to mute crying stopped, but when the Kazekage straightened up Neji's eyes had gotten used to the dark well enough to make out the soft glow of Gaara's moist eyes.

"Sorry about that…" he murmured as he used the sorrowful remains of his sleeve to wipe the tears of his cheek, but Neji just shook his head in return.

"Don't apologise. Anyone would have reacted the same way. Probably much sooner as well."

Gaara gave the Hyuuga a puzzling look, but before Neji had the time to figure out what it meant the other boy had already gotten up from the floor and was groping around the surface of his desk.

Seconds later a light flared up above Neji's head as Gaara lit a new candle before proceeding with digging up some new candles from another drawer.

As Gaara restored light to the room, Neji got up and cleaned up the old bandages and droplets of blood that had stained the floor. When he was done he dumped the whole lot in the trash bin and covered it with some crumbled up paper to make it less noticeable, should someone walk in.

"There, good as new." He said while turning around, finding Gaara standing less than two feet behind him, his gaze as cryptic as ever while those green eyes sought his white ones.

"Why did you come here?"

Blunt like always, but still the question caught Neji completely off guard.

"I came to see how you where doing…" he said, trying to keep himself from stuttering.

"That's what you said…"

Neji swallowed, his heart threatening to beat out of his chest as the redhead took a step closer.

"… so how come I don't believe you?"

Without thinking Neji took a step back and unceremoniously bumped his back into the desk, making the candles shake and dribble melted wax onto the wooden surface.

"Why did you come to see me?"

Embarrassed out of his mind from the desk-mishap Neji tried to regain some of his composure by straightening up, but to no avail. It felt like the redhead had grown at least three feet in less than a minute, his sudden authority making Neji's ears heat up underneath his long hair.

"I-I just…"

Gaara leaned in on him, halting with his chest a mere hairs width away from Neji's own and the warmth from his lips made the older boy's breath catch in his throat as he spoke.

"Did you really just drop by to see me, _Hyuuga_, or did you come here for something else?"

Neji wanted to reach out and touch the body in front of him so badly, but at the same time he didn't trust his limbs to obey him properly.

His knees were trembling and his mouth was dry, the pulse banging away inside his head and threatening to drown out every other sound around him. In the pit of his stomach something had begun to stir, an anticipation he had not felt for a very long time…

Gaara's hot breath ghosted over his lips, mingling with his own shallow breathing.

It was agonisingly obvious how Gaara's advancements were affecting his body, the rapid breath and sweaty palms being mere parts of a much bigger picture that he hoped to god the other boy hadn't put together yet.

"Aren't you going to say anything?"

Say anything? He had to be kidding, Neji could barely form syllables at the moment, much less talk!

"You seem… uncomfortable."

The tangy undertone in Gaara's voice made Neji snap out of the daze he had been submerged into, just that a hint of a warning was all he got before he felt nimble fingers sneak their way around his back and up towards his neck, spreading feral tremors in their wake.

"Let's see if we can change that…"

The stir in Neji's stomach exploded at the sound of those words being whispered from his former lover's lips, expectations of what next to come almost being too much for him to handle, but when Gaara's hand grasped around the strands of his long silky hair it wasn't with the harsh tug he had known from three years ago, but a slow, controlling guidance that forced his head to lean back almost of it's own will…

Gaara's mouth closed in on his pulse, breath flowing over and heating sensitive skin and making Neji moan out with impatience.

So close… so inconceivably close….

A loud knock on the door suddenly shattered the silence and made both males do startled jumps into the air. The sudden intrusion caused Gaara to turn around with a low growl, for a second forgetting that he was still holding on to Neji's long hair. The violent tug made the Hyuuga hiss with pain, not at all enjoying it like he had only a moment ago.

"Who is it?" Gaara demanded from whoever it was standing on the other side of the door.

"It is me, Kazekage-sama. Takeo-san"

Neji shot a questioning glance at Gaara and just like he had expected, the other boy's posture had suddenly grown stiff and defensive.

"May I come in?"

Gaara looked at Neji who quickly straightened out his clothes and pulled a hand through his ruffled hair before nodding. The Kazekage quickly removed his Kazekage robes from atop his black tunic and hung it over the back of his office chair, making sure to hide the torn sleeve before seating, resting the injured hand in his lap, out of sight.

"Yes, come in."

The door opened and the custard coloured man from before walked into the room, the tall hat still balancing on his head like a wobbly cone. When he spotted Neji he halted, the humble look on his face momentarily darkening before he regained his composure.

"Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't know you had company."

He bowed towards Neji who reluctantly bowed back, holding back the urge to kick the despicable man in the face.

"And such honourable company indeed. I apologise if I… Interrupted something?"

He was fishing, Neji could tell by the greedy glimmer in his eyes, but whatever embarrassment he could have felt about being caught red handed with Gaara, instantly melted away at the thought of this man's disgustingly contemptuous behaviour.

Instead he calmly met the bearded man's gaze with as much cool as he could possibly muster and wrung out a devastatingly polite smile from his reluctant lips.

"Not at all. We were just catching up."

Obviously disappointed from the lack of flustering from Neji's part, Kaito's smile faltered slightly.

"Of course. Then perhaps I should come back some other time?"

"As a matter of fact, Hyuuga-san was jus about to leave." Gaara intercepted coldly from his desk.

It didn't take a genius to understand that the question had been intended for Neji, but when Gaara answered in his place Kaito quickly turned his attention to the Kage sitting behind the desk.

"Oh by all means, don't let me interrupt anything."

"Absolutely not. Hyuuga-san and I can continue our talk in the morning, isn't that so?" he looked at Neji who nodded, not wasting time to understand the hint.

"Of course. It's getting late and we all need our sleep."

Gaara's face had gone back to that blank expression once more, but the look in those aquatic green eyes when they met his told him that this was merely a temporary good-bye, not a farewell.

The thought made his entire body tingle with excitement.

He however held back his mirth as he bowed towards Gaara and then turned towards Kaito, repeating the gesture.

"Good night, gentlemen. I wish you both a pleasant evening."

And with that he turned and walked out of Gaara's office, closing the door silently behind him, leaving the poor council member into the mercy of what he knew would be the foul mood of the Kazekage's interrupted libido…

.

.

.

**To be continued!**


End file.
